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Information Please
2.1
A Full-Text Information Storage and Retrieval System
for IBM PC and Compatible Computers
February 1992
(C)Copyright TexaSoft, 1983-1992
P.O. Box 1169
Cedar Hill, Texas 75104
cen
214-291-2115 Fax:214-291-3400
All Rights Reserved
All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. No part
of this book may be reproduced without prior permission. For
information, address inquiries to TexaSoft, PO Box 1169, Cedar Hill,
Texas 75104 USA or Fax:214-291-3400.
No patent liability is assumed with respect to the use of the
information contained herein. While every precaution has been taken
in the preparation of this publication, the publisher assumes no
responsibility for errors or omissions. Neither is any liability
assumed for damages resulting from the use of the information
herein.
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CONTENTS
Introduction to Information Please
Differences in this version
Installing Information Please
Beginning Information Please
Take a Quick Tour
Tour, Part 2 - National Parks
Textbases on disk
How Information Please is Organized
Using the Files Menu
Using the Edit Menu
Using the View Menu
Options While Viewing Records
Using the IPPCX Program
Information Please Editor
Edit Function Keys
Edit Control Commands
Using Command Line Switches
Using the Run Time Program
Distributing IP Textbases
User Ballot
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INTRODUCTION TO INFORMATION PLEASE
Information Please is a text storage and retrieval program allowing
you to access full-text information. It gives you the ability to store
an encyclopedia of information on the computer and to "look up" pieces
of that information by searching for certain key words - such as
memos, catalogues, briefs, letters, invoices, articles, product
descriptions, scientific papers, and so on. Information about a
certain topic is stored in an Information Please "textbase" database.
Enter information from the keyboard, ASCII files, or import from your
favorite word processor. IP textbases may contain information such as:
- How to Respond to PC-DOS Error Messages
- Information on Toxic Chemicals
- Directory of National Parks
- Poison Control Information
- Franchise Opportunities
- Patent Infringement Case Studies
For example, suppose you ran a brokerage business for people wanting
to get franchises. If you had the Information Please textbase called
Franchise Information, and you wanted to know what automotive
franchises that deal with brakes were available, you could easily look
up that cross-referenced information in the Information Please
textbase. (Could you imagine how much time it could take to
cross-reference that look-up in a book (or books))? Once you have
defined your search, you can examine the information on the screen,
print it to the printer, or continue your search for more relevant
information.
Suppose employees in your company call into a central help line to get
help when their cash register or computer acts up. Over a period of
time, most questions will have standard answers. Do you need to have a
staff of several experts to answer these questions over and over
again? Should you reinvent a solution each time a question is asked --
even though it may be the same question that was asked two weeks ago,
a month ago, or a year ago? Why not store a description of the
problem in an Information Please textbase. Then, when someone calls up
with a problem that has been previously solved, the helpdesk operator
can easily search for that problem and relate the answer to the
caller.
In fact, if you place a copy of Information Please on each employee's
computer, they can find the answer to their own question without even
having to call the central help line. What you have is a time saving,
money saving, productivity enhancing benefit! Information Please is
designed specifically to help you find the information you need
quickly and with a minimum number of keystrokes. It uses a
conceptually easy menu system that can be mastered in a matter of
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minutes.
Differences in IP Version 2.1
Version 2.1 of Information Please contains these changes from the
original release of version 2.0:
o Includes a runtime module that you may use to distribute
IP textbases without any royalty fee.
o Print individual record to a file or printer.
o Select automatic page after print of a record.
o Select margins for printing a record.
o Password protection and encrypting with multiple levels
of authorization.
o Count records containing a search match.
o Improved /OPEN parameter and menu improvements.
o More examples.
INSTALLING INFORMATION PLEASE
To place Information Please on your hard disk, place the Information
Please distribution disk in your A: drive (or B:, C:, D: etc). Make A:
(or B: etc) the default by typing A: (or B: etc) at the DOS prompt.
Enter the command:
INSTALL
Then follow the prompts on the screen. You will be prompted to enter
or confirm the name of the disk to install FROM, and the disk to
install TO, and the DIRECTORY where you want the program installed.
Suggested answers will be presented for each of these questions. To
accept the suggestion, press Enter. To enter a new TO, FROM or
DIRECTORY, press backspace to erase the suggested answer, then enter
your own specification.
BEGINNING INFORMATION PLEASE
To begin Information Please from the DOS prompt, make sure you are
logged into the correct drive and are in the \IP directory. If you
are not in the IP directory, enter the command:
CD \IP
To begin Information Please, enter the command
IP
Depending on what edition you are running, Copyright information
may appear on the screen. If it does, press Enter. A screen will
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appear with a menu bar at the top and a status bar at the bottom.
The Files menu will be displayed. To choose an option from the
menu, press the first letter of the option or use the up and down
arrow keys to highlight the desired option, then press Enter.
SETUP INFORMATION PLEASE
To setup Information Please for your computer, select "Choose
Program Options" from the menu. You will be prompted to enter the
path to be used for the program. For now, just enter the name of
the disk drive, such as C: or A: and press Enter. You will then be
prompted to choose the kind of monitor you are using. If your
monitor will display colors, choose color. If you are using a
laptop with an LCD monitor, you will probably choose the LCD option
or else choose the monochrome option (black and white, green and
black, etc). Choose the one that is most comfortable to you. Next,
you will choose your printer port, usually LPT1:.
You will also be asked to enter default margins for printing our
records, and you will be allowed to choose if you want to
automatically have the printer go to the top of form each time a
record is printed.
The setup information is saved to disk so you will not have to set
these options again unless you want to change something. You can
reset these program options at any time by choosing the Choose
Program Options from the FILES menu.
TAKE A QUICK TOUR OF INFORMATION PLEASE
To give you an idea of what Information Please can do, follow along
with the example given here. All of the menus and options used here
are explained later in more detail. Begin Information Please by
entering the command IP at the DOS prompt. You should first see a
copyright notice. Press Enter. Next, you should see a screen like
the one illustrated in Figure 1.
1. Choose Textbase: Choose the Information Please textbase to use
by selecting the option "Open a Textbase" from the Files menu
(Either press the O (letter O, not zero) key or highlight this
option and press Enter). When you choose this option, one or more
textbase names will be listed on the screen. Using the up and down
arrow keys, highlight the name "IP-DOS" and press Enter. At the
bottom left of the screen, you should see a note that the textbase
IP-DOS is currently in use.
2. Go To View Menu: The View menu will now be extended. Use the up
and down arrow keys to highlight the option "View Keyword List."
With this option highlighted, press the Enter key to select it. A
list of keywords, one list per line, will appear on the screen. Use
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the Up and Down arrow key to move to record number 5, then press
the Enter key. This causes the contents of record number 5 to be
displayed on the screen.
3. View Nearby Records: With record number 5 displayed on the
screen, press the F10 key a couple of times. This moves you forward
in the textbase. Pressing the F9 key moves you backwards in the
textbase. Press the Esc key to return to the screen listing the
keywords. Press Esc again to return to the View Menu.
4. Do A Keyword Search: While in the View menu, press the "K" key
to choose the option "Keyword Search." A list of match types will
appear. Choose the Single Keyword Search option. You will be
prompted to enter a keyword. Enter the word DISK and press Enter.
Information Please will now search the keyword lists for the word
DISK, and will display the first record that contains that keyword.
5. Continue Same Search: When a record is displayed, observe the
keyword list to find the word DISK. Press the F10 key to continue
the search to the next keyword list containing the word DISK, or
press the F9 key to search backwards in the file. If there are no
more matches, the search ends.
6. End the Program: Press the Esc key one or more times until you
are back to the View menu. Press Esc once more and you will be
prompted
End Information Please (y/N)
Enter Y key and press Enter to end the program and return to the
DOS prompt.
TOUR NUMBER 2 - NATIONAL PARKS
You can also begin IP from the DOS prompt and automatically open a
textbase to use. For example, to open the PARKS textbase, enter
this command at the DOS prompt:
IP /OPEN:PARKS
This time the IP screen appears with the VIEW pull down menu
extended and KEYWORD SEARCH highlighted. Press the downarrow key
once to select In-Text search and press Enter (or press I). Choose
single keyword search, and enter the word BEAR. The program will
locate the first record in the PARKS textbase that matches the
search word BEAR.
This textbase also uses the PCX viewer to display a map of the
park's location. Press the F4 key, and a map of Alaska should
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appear. (If it does not, you may not have a CGA compatible
monitor.) Press Enter to go back to the text description.
Press the Esc key one or more times until you are back to the View
menu. Press Esc once more and you will be prompted
End Information Please (y/N)
Enter Y key and press Enter to end the program and return to the
DOS prompt.
TEXTBASES ON DISK
The Information Please textbases on disk are:
IP-DOS: This textbase contains information about how to respond to
DOS error messages concerning the use of disk drives. It gives
suggestions for how to recover from problems you may encounter.
PARKS Textbase: This textbase contains information about US
National Parks. Open this textbase and look at the first record for
an Alaska National Park. Notice that when the record is displayed,
there is a menu item F4 at the bottom of the window. This indicates
that there is a command associated with this record. In this case,
it is a command to show a map of the Alaska National Parks. (Action
commands are described later) If you have a CGA compatible monitor
(including an EGA or VGA), press the F4 key and the Alaska parks
map should appear on the screen. Press Enter to return to the text
of the record.
SAMPLER Textbase: This textbase contains single examples of other
kinds of information you could store in an Information Please
Textbase. Look through the records in this textbase to give you
ideas about how you can more effectively use Information Please.
FRANCHISE Textbase: There is a file on disk called FRANCHIS.TXT
that is the text of a textbase which you can use to try out the
import feature of IP. From the IP Files menu, choose New Textbase,
and call it FRANCHIS. Then go to the Edit menu and choose Import.
Import the file FRANCHIS.TXT, then look at the records to see how
this information was easily imported into IP. This textbase
contains information about US Franchise Opportunities. Only a few
records are included in this example textbase. Also, you might
examine the FRANCHIS.TXT file with your word processor to see how
to prepare a file to be imported into IP.
Besides the information in these textbases, you can create your own
textbases. The following information details the various commands
and options available to you in Information Please.
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HOW INFORMATION PLEASE IS ORGANIZED
The Information Please main menu consists of three options; Files,
Edit, and View. When you choose one of these options, a menu will
be displayed giving you another set of options. The FILE menu item
is used to deal with file (textbase) related issues such as
creating a new textbase, opening a current textbase, deleting a
textbase and so on. The EDIT menu item is used to deal with
individual entries (records) in the textbase such as editing a
record, deleting records and so on. The VIEW menu item is used to
search for and look at entries in the textbase.
Each entry in an Information Please textbase is called a record. A
record consists of two parts, a keyword list and a description. The
keyword list is a list of words that describe the entry. For
example, the keywords might be "HARD DISK WILL NOT BOOT" and the
entry might explain what can cause a hard disk to lose its ability
to boot, and give some solutions for solving the problem.
The Keyword list consists of up to 65 characters. The entry
description can consists of up to 500 lines (or about 32K of
information) of free-form information - usually one or more
paragraphs of information.
USING THE FILES MENU
The File menu allows you to use and manipulate Information Please
files and also contains some options that deal with program setup
and operation. The Files menu options are:
Files Menu Options
Help
New Textbase
Open a Textbase
Delete a Textbase
Edit Textbase Description
Print a Textbase
Encode/Decode a Textbase
Sort a Textbase
About Information Please
Choose Program Options
Go to DOS, Return with EXIT
Quit, Return to DOS
To choose one of these options, you may use the up and down arrow
keys to highlight the desired option and then press the Enter key.
Optionally, you can press the first letter of the option. For
example, to choose the "About Information Please" option, press the
A key. Following is a brief description of each of these options.
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HELP
The Help option displays a series of help screens that summarize
the contents of the manual. When Help is chosen, a menu of items
will appear. You can then choose a topic to examine or return to
the main menu.
NEW TEXTBASE
The New Textbase option allows you to name a new textbase. Before
entering information into a textbase you must either open an
existing textbase or create a new textbase.
OPEN TEXTBASE
The Open Textbase option allows you to choose which Information
Please textbase on disk you will be using. A list of the available
textbases will be displayed on the screen from which you can choose
one to open.
DELETE A TEXTBASE
The Delete a Textbase option allows you to delete textbase files
from your disk. It will delete the currently open textbase -- but
will ask for a confirmation to make sure you really want to delete
the textbase files.
EDIT A TEXTBASE DESCRIPTION
The Edit a Textbase Description option allows you to enter or edit
the 40 character description of the currently open textbase. This
textbase description is displayed in the list of textbases when you
choose the Open Textbase or Delete Textbase options.
PRINT TEXTBASE
The Print Textbase option allows you to print the contents of the
textbase to a printer or to a file.
ENCODE/DECODE A TEXTBASE
The Encode/Decode option allows you to scramble the contents of a
textbase to prevent unauthorized persons from extracting
information from the textbase. When you encode a textbase, you will
be asked to enter a password. Later, if you want to decode the
textbase (and turn it back into a normal textbase) you will have to
enter the same password before the program will decode the
textbase. When you encode a textbase, you can choose to have:
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o 1. the information scrambled in the textbase but
available for viewing from IP. No printing is allowed from the
textbase. You would use this option when you want the information
to be available for viewing, but you want some protection from the
user printing the information to a printer or to the file.
o 2. the information scrambled in the textbase and cannot
be viewed unless the correct password is entered when requested. No
printing is allowed from the textbase. You would use this option
when you want to limit who will be able to read/print the contents
of the textbase.
o 3. similar to 2, except printing is allowed.
When you choose to encode a textbase, you will be asked questions
about how you want to allow the information to be viewed (one of
the three options described above). Encoding will slow the display
and searching of records, particularly on PC's using 8088
microprocessors. You will want to test the encoded textbase to see
if encoding makes search times too long. Encoding is not
fool-proof. A competent hacker would be able to decipher the
scrambled data eventually, but the encoding is sufficient enough
that it will keep the nosy from easily viewing or capturing the
contents of a textbase.
The decoding process simply returns an encoded textbase back to its
original non-encoded state.
SORT Textbase
The Sort Textbase option allows you to sort the textbase keyword
lists. In order to effectively use the sort option, you may
pre-plan your keyword list so they can be sorted. For example, you
might make the first word in your keyword list your most important
word. For example, in the Franchise Textbase, it might be the kind
of franchise such as AUTOMOTIVE, BUSINESS, FOOD, and so on. Then,
when you enter new items and want to place the keyword list in
alphabetical order, you can sort on the first word of your keyword
list.
When you choose to Sort a Textbase, you will be asked to enter the
range of the keyword list to use as the sort key. For example, if
you want to use the first 5 characters of the keyword list, you
would enter 1-5 as your sort key range. When Information Please
sorts a textbase, the textbase is also automatically compressed.
Thus, any records that have been marked for delete will be gone
when you perform a sort.
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If this sort does not place your textbase in the order you want,
another option is to print the textbase to a file, then use a word
processor to move records around. When your textbase is in the
order you want, delete the old Information Please textbase and
re-create the textbase name and import the information from your
word processed file (it must be an ASCII text file). - See Import.
ABOUT INFORMATION PLEASE
The About Information Please option gives copyright information
about the program.
CHOOSE PROGRAM OPTIONS
The Choose Program Options item allows you to choose the disk drive
and path to use for Information Please and to indicate what kind of
monitor you are using. For the path, you can enter just the disk
drive name, such as C: or a drive and path, such as C:\IP\. If no
path is specified, Information Please will use information in the
current default directory on your disk. You may choose from monitor
types Color, LCD or Monochrome. The color option refers to CGA,
EGA, PGA, VGA or other monitor types that display color. The LCD
option displays only black and white. The Monochrome option
displays black, white and bright white. Choose the one that is most
pleasant for your use. After you make your choice, the information
is stored to disk so the settings will be the same the next time
you begin the Information Please program.
GO TO DOS
The Go to DOS option allows you to temporarily return to the DOS
prompt. You may enter DOS commands or run another program. When you
type EXIT at the DOS prompt, Information Please will resume.
QUIT
The Quit, Return to DOS option ends the Information Please program
and returns you to the DOS prompt.
USING THE EDIT MENU
The Edit menu is used to edit or manipulate individual records in
the textbase. Before using the Edit menu, you must have an open
textbase. If a textbase is open, the textbase name will be located
at the bottom left of the screen. The options on the Edit menu are:
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EDIT MENU OPTIONS:
Add New Entry
Delete an Entry
Restore a Deleted Entry
Edit and Entry
Import from a File
Compress the Textbase
ADD NEW ENTRY
The Add New Entry option allows you to enter a new record into the
textbase. This record consists of a description and a keyword list.
When you choose to enter a record, the Information Please Editor
will display with a mostly blank screen. On this screen, you will
enter the description that you want to appear in the record.
Also, you must enter a keyword description. To display the keyword
entry box, press the F2 function key. A dialog box will appear in
which you can enter the keywords for this record. Press enter to
return to the editor.
Optionally, you can enter an Action Command to be associated with
this record. An Action Command is a DOS command that you want to be
issued during the viewing of the record. For example, In the PARKS
textbase, when you view information about Alaskan parks, you can
view a map of the parks by pressing the F4 key. The F4 key invokes
a command that was defined when this entry was added (or edited).
To define a command, press the CTRL-K key while adding or editing
this record. The command may be any DOS command up to 25 characters
in length. The main stipulation is that there must be enough memory
in the computer for this command to execute. See the discussion on
ACTION COMMANDS later.
When you have finished entering the description and keywords, press
the F7 function key to save the information. If you decide to
abandon this entry and not save the information, press the Esc key.
DELETE AN ENTRY
The Delete an Entry option allows you to delete a record from the
textbase. You will be asked to enter the record number of the entry
to delete. Optionally, you can enter a range of records to delete.
This process does not actually permanently get rid of the entry or
entries - you can restore a deleted entry. If a record is deleted,
you cannot read it or display its contents. To permanently get rid
of all deleted records, use the Compress option.
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RESTORE A DELETED ENTRY
If you have deleted an entry, you can get it back by using the
Restore a Deleted Entry option. You will be prompted to enter the
number of the entry to restore.
EDIT AN ENTRY
The Edit an Entry option allows you to edit the keywords and
description of an entry. The entry will be displayed in the
Information Please editor, where you can change, add to, or delete
information in the description. Use the F2 key to edit the keyword
list or CTRL-K to edit the Action Command (see description for
Adding an Entry). Editing records can cause slack space in your
textbase file. This is space in your textbase that formerly held
information, but now is not used because of editing. You should
periodically run the Compress option to free up the slack space in
the textbase.
IMPORT FROM A FILE
Using the Import from a File option, you can enter information that
you may already have on your computer into an Information Please
textbase. To import information into Information Please, your
information should be in a standard ASCII text file with lines less
than 75 characters long. Most word processors will save information
in this manner as an option. Your text file should have keyword
lists before each description. This keyword list must begin with
KEY: followed by up to 65 characters for the key list. For example:
KEY:HARD DISK WILL NOT BOOT
After the key, place the text of the description. You may have
any number of entries in your text file. When you import them into
Information Please, the "KEY:" statement will signal the beginning
of a new entry.
Optionally, you may also have a command line in the file. For
example, if you want the command
IPPCX ALASKA /M:0
to be available when this record is viewed, place
COMMAND:IPPCX ALASKA /M:0
flush left in the description of this record on a line following
the KEY: line. (see Action Commands, described later). You may also
include a title (Textbase description) in the text file by placing
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TITLE: and a description on the first line of the file. For
example:
TITLE:FRANCHISE INFORMATION
Once you have created the file containing the entries you may
choose the Import From a File option. You will be asked the name of
the file to import, and Information Please will read the file and
add those entries to the record of the currently opened textbase.
If you are beginning with a blank textbase, choose Create a
Textbase from the Files menu, then choose Import from the Edit
menu.
A sample text file that you can import is on disk. The file is
named FRANCHIS.TXT. To import this file:
1) From the FILES menu, choose NEW Textbase and enter the name
FRAN. Leave the textbase description blank since the text file
contains a TITLE.
2) Go to the EDIT menu and choose IMPORT. When asked for the file
name, enter FRANCHIS.TXT.
The information will be converted to an Information Please
textbase, and is now ready to be searched and used.
COMPRESS THE TEXTBASE
When you have deleted records from a textbase, they are not
physically removed, and they may be restored. To permanently get
rid of these records, use the Compress the Textbase option. This
will free up space on your disk and make searching the textbase
more efficient.
USING THE VIEW MENU
The View menu is where you search and view the information in the
Information Please textbase. You may choose to view a record by
number, by searching for a keyword in the keyword list, by
searching for one or more words in the record description or by
looking at a list of the keywords. The items on the View Menu are:
VIEW MENU OPTIONS:
Keyword Choice
In-Text Search
View Keyword List
Number Choice
You must have a currently open textbase to choose one of these
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options. Choose an option by highlighting the option and pressing
the Enter key, or press the first letter of the option.
KEYWORD CHOICE
When you choose the Keyword Choice option, you will see another
menu giving you the following options:
Single Keyword Search
AND - Multiple AND Search
OR - Multiple OR Search
Quit
A single keyword search allows you to enter a keyword or phrase
(such as DISK). Information Please will then display the first
record that matches the search. Case is not checked, so DISK will
match disk. You may use the F9 key to view the previous matching
record, the F10 key to view the next matching record. Deleted
records will not be displayed. Press the F2 key if you wish to edit
this record. Press the Esc key to end the viewing.
A Multiple AND search allows you to specify 2 to 10 words to match.
For example, you might want to match on the words DISK and BOOT.
The AND match criteria means that the keyword must contain BOTH the
word DISK and the word BOOT. You will be prompted to enter a list
of match words with the AND sign (&) between each word. In this
case you would enter
DISK&BOOT
Information Please will display the first record that matches the
search criteria. You may use the F9 key to view the previous
matching record, the F10 key to view the next matching record.
Deleted records will not be displayed. Press the F2 key if you wish
to edit this record. Press the Esc key to end the viewing.
A Multiple OR search allows you to specify 2 to 10 words to match.
For example, you might want to match on the words DISK or BOOT.
The match criteria means that the keyword must contain EITHER the
word DISK or the word BOOT. You will be prompted to enter a list of
match words with a ~ (tilde) between each word. In this case you
would enter
DISK~BOOT
Information Please will display the first record that matches the
search criteria. You may use the F9 key to view the previous
matching record, the F10 key to view the next matching record.
Deleted records will not be displayed. Press the F2 key if you wish
to edit this record. Press the Esc key to end the viewing.
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IN-TEXT SEARCH
An In-text Search searches the contents of the entry, not just the
keyword list. This search tends to be slower than a keyword search.
When you choose the In-Text Search option, you are give the same
options as in the Keyword search - a single keyword search,
multiple AND matches and multiple OR matches.
VIEW KEYWORD LIST
The View Keyword List option displays a list of the keyword
descriptions of all of the entries in the currently opened
textbase. If there are more entries than the screen can display,
you may press the down arrow key or PgDn to view additional keyword
lists. To move back up the list, press the up arrow key or PgUp. To
view the contents of a record, highlight the keyword list and press
the Enter key. Press the Esc key to end the View Keyword List
option.
NUMBER CHOICE
When you choose the Number Choice option, you will be asked to
enter the number of the record to view. This record will then be
displayed on the screen. You may use the F9 key to view the
previous record, the F10 key to view the next record. Deleted
records will not be displayed. Press the F2 key if you wish to edit
this record. Press the Esc key to end the viewing.
OPTIONS WHILE VIEWING RECORDS
While viewing records, there are several function key commands that
are available to you. Pressing the F10 function key will cause
Information Please to search for the next record. The F9 key
searches for the previous record. Pressing the F2 key allows you to
edit the record being viewed. Pressing the F3 key allows you to
print this record or save the contents to a file. If an action
command has been defined for a record, the F4 key will activate
that command. Press the Esc key to quit viewing records and return
to the previous menu.
USING ACTION COMMANDS (F4)
An Action Command is a DOS command that you want to be issued
during the viewing of the record. If an Action Command has been
created for a record, while viewing the record the F4 function key
will appear at the bottom of the view window. When the F4 function
key is pressed, the Action Command is executed.
An Action Command is defined when an entry is added (or edited) in
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an Information Please textbase. To define a command while in the
editor, press the CTRL-K key. The command may be any DOS command up
to 25 characters in length. The main stipulation is that there must
be enough memory in the computer for this command to execute.
The Parks information file uses an Action Command to display a map
of Alaska associated with the description of Alaskan National
Parks. A program that displays PCX (Paintbrush) files is included
on your Information Please disk. This program, IPPCX.EXE, displays
a graphic on the screen. When the user presses any key, the program
ends, and control is turned back over to Information Please. See
the description about how to use the IPPCX program.
You can use any DOS command as an Action Command. There are any
number of programs available to you that can display graphics (PCX,
GIF, TIF and others), programs that can display spreadsheets,
textbase file, text files, and so on. When the program you have
initiated quits, control will be turned back over to Information
Please.
The primary concern in using an Action Command is if the user's PC
has that program available and if it will work on his or her PC.
For example, if you have a PCX graphic created to be viewed on a
VGA type monitor, a person with a CGA monitor will not be able to
see the graphic properly.
If the command you want to issue is longer than 25 characters, you
can use the Action Command to call a batch file. The batch file can
then contain other commands that you want executed. See your DOS
manual for a description of batch files.
The program IPPCX was included on disk to illustrate how to use an
Action Command. A description of how IPPCX works follows.
USING THE IPPCX PROGRAM
The IPPCX Program allows you to display PCX type files to the
monitor. The format of the IPPCX program is
IPPCX filename [/M:n]
where filename is the name of the PCX file and the optional switch
/M:n designates the Monitor type being used. The option n may range
from 0 to 9, with the following meanings:
PCX Monitor Modes for the IPPCX Program
0 - 320 x 200 pixel CGA (4 colors)
1 - 640 x 200 pixel CGA (2 colors)
2 - 320 x 200 pixel EGA (16 colors)
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3 - 640 x 299 pixel EGA (16 colors)
4 - 640 x 350 pixel EGA (2 colors)
5 - 640 x 350 pixel EGA (16 colors)
6 - 640 x 480 pixel VGA (2 colors)
7 - 640 x 480 pixel VGA (16 colors)
8 - 320 x 200 pixel VGA (256 colors)
9 - 720 x 348 pixel Hercules (2 colors)
The monitor type should match the type used to create the PCX file.
If a monitor cannot display the monitor type, the PCX graphic will
appear distorted.
For example, in the PARKS textbase, the command
IPPCX ALASKA /M:0
was used as an Action Command. This command began the IPPCX program
to display the PCX file named ALASKA.PCX. The switch /M:0 indicates
that this graphic is made to display on a CGA type monitor. (It
will also display properly on most EGA and VGA monitors.)
USING THE INFORMATION PLEASE EDITOR
The Information Please editor allows you to enter new record
descriptions or to modify descriptions already in a textbase. The
following commands are available in the editor. Commands are
accessed by pressing a function key or by entering a CTRL (control)
command. The edit keys command are:
EDIT FUNCTION KEYS
Esc-End - Exit without saving modifications
F1-Help: Help screens.
F2-Keyword - Enter or Modify Keyword list
F3-Top: Move to the top of the record
F4-Bottom: Move to the bottom of the record
F5-Files: List files or get file from disk.
F6-Center a line
F7-Save Record and any modifications
F8-Clear: Clears editor contents (Does not clear
copy buffer).
F9-Mark: Mark block for copy.
F10-Copy: Copy text. See also Ctrl-C.
To edit or enter a keyword list, use the F2 function key. The F9
and F10 commands are used to copy text from one location to
another. To mark text (store it to be moved), place the cursor at
the top left of the text and press the F9 key once. Then move the
cursor to the bottom right of the text and press the F9 key again.
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Make sure your rectangle covers all of the text to move. When you
mark the text, it will be highlighted on the screen. Move your
cursor to where you want the text to be moved and press the F10
key. This will insert the text between existing lines in the
record. To copy text directly over exiting text, use the CTRL-C
command rather than the F10 command.
To exit the editor and save the description, press the F7-Save key.
To exit and not save, press the Esc key.
The following Control commands are issued by pressing the CTRL key
like a shift key, and then simultaneously pressing a single command
key.
CONTROL COMMANDS (CTRL)
CTRL A - Makes characters UPPER CASE.
CTRL C - Is similar to the F10 function key. However, instead of
first inserting blank lines before making a copy, CTRL C will place
the copied text in the position specified by the cursor, directly
over any text that may happen to exist.
CTRL D - Deletes all characters on the current line which are to
the right of the cursor. If the cursor is in column one, the entire
line will be deleted.
CTRL K - Allows you to enter or edit an Action Command.
CTRL F - "Fills" the text from the current line to the next blank
line which starts with a dot "." Each line is filled with as many
words as will fit while observing the current line length
specifications.
CTRL J - Justifies line to right line length (margin) in editor.
CTRL L - Resets the line length (right margin) within EDIT. After
pressing CTRL L, you will be prompted to enter the new line length.
CTRL S - Will search for a specified text. You will be prompted to
enter the text to be located. Each time this text is matched, it
will be highlighted on the screen.
CTRL W - Deletes text from the position of the cursor to the next
blank. This is usually used to delete a word.
CTRL Y - Deletes a line.
CTRL Z - Makes characters lower case.
USING COMMAND LINE SWITCHES
This section lists some special features of Information Please.
These may be of particular interest to organizational PC Support
Coordinators.
Command Line Switches
The format for the Information Please command is
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IP [/MESS:filename][/OPEN:textbasename]
The items in brackets are optional switches to the command.
Information in switches must not contain any blank spaces.
The /OPEN: switch allows you to open an Information Please textbase
file without having to choose it from the Information Please menu.
This allows you to setup the Information Please program to
automatically use a particular textbase. For example, if you want
the textbase IP-DOS to be open when you begin the program, you
would enter the command:
IP /OPEN:IP-DOS
The /MESS: switch allows you to display the information from a text
file on the screen at the beginning of the Information Please
program. This could be helpful if you are using Information Please
as a part of an organizational support program. You can use this
"Special Message" as a description of how to use Information
Please, what updates you have included in a textbase, and other
important messages. For example, suppose you place some ASCII text
in a file named SPECIAL.TXT that you want displayed when
Information Please is begun. You would use the command:
IP /MESS:special.txt
This message will be displayed in a message box with the caption
"Special Message" at the top and "Press Enter to Continue" at the
bottom. ASCII text files can be created by most word processors.
Create a file using margins that create a document about 60
characters wide. Save the document as a DOS, ASCII or Text file
(different word processors use different terms.). Then, use the
/MESS: switch in the Information Please command to display the
message.
To get rid of the "Print an Order Form" message on the opening
screen, use the /N switch in the command line. For example, enter
IP /N to begin the program.
USING THE RUN TIME PROGRAM
The Information Please run time version is named IPRT.EXE. This
program can be used to distribute your textbases without royalty.
As a registered user, you may distribute the files IPRT.EXE,
IPRT.HLP (the help file), TXHELP.EXE (the help screen driver) and
IPPCX.EXE (the PCX viewer) to provide access to any textbase you
may develop.
The IP run time program contains all of the function needed to view
and search your textbase and to optionally allow the user to print
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records (password protection and encoding are supported in this
version). It does not contain the ability to create new textbases
or any of the editing functions. Otherwise, the programs are
identical. To begin the runtime module, enter the command
IPRT
at the DOS prompt. You may want to create a batch file to begin the
program and open up your textbase. For example, if your textbase is
called CATALOG, you would use the command
IPRT /OPEN:CATALOG
You can also use the /MESS: option to cause a message screen to
appear as the program begins. This can contain your own copyright
and instructional information.
DISTRIBUTING INFORMATION PLEASE TEXTBASES
If you are distributing Information Please textbases, you must
supply two files for each textbase. Of course, there must be a copy
of the Information Please program or the run time version on each
computer also. The file with the .IPI extension contains the index
of Keywords. The file with the extension .IPD contains the data
records. To distribute an Information Please textbase, all you need
to do is supply these two files. That is, copy these files to the
PC hard disk directory where you want them to be available. When
you choose "Open a Textbase" from the Files menu, Information
Please searches the directory for textbase names. Those textbase
names that are found are the ones displayed when the user chooses
Open Textbase.
To distribute the run time version: The program files required to
run the IP run time version are IPRT.EXE, TXHELP.EXE and IPRT.HLP.
Optionally, you can include the IPPCX.EXE file if you are using the
PCX viewer. You may distribute these files as a part of a textbase
you are distributing (including commercial distibution) without
making any royalty payment if you are a registered IP user with
TexaSoft.
To distribute the full version: The program files required to run
the full version of IP are IP.EXE, TXHELP.EXE and IP.HLP.
Optionally, you can include the IPPCX.EXE file if you are using the
PCX viewer and/or the IP-SORT.EXE and IP-ENC.EXE files. To
distribute the fully functional version of IP within an
organization, you must purchase a site license from TexaSoft. To
distribute the full version in a commercial (retail, shareware,
etc.) program, you must obtain a distribution license from
TexaSoft.
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USER BALLOT
In order to continue to improve Information Please, we need your
input. This ballot is used to help us prioritize changes in future
versions. Please indicate the changes you would like to see most in
this program. Place a number from 0 to 10 next to each item, where
10 indicates a HIGH priority for change and 0 means a LOW priority
for change. We appreciate your suggestions.
Your Vote Item
--------- -----------------------------------
_____ Support use of a mouse
_____ Make the program searching faster
_____ Make the keyword field longer
_____ Allow fixed-length fields within the
keyword field
_____ Allow sort by numeric and/or date keyword
items
_____ Provide more examples on disk & in the
manual
_____ Allow mixed AND and OR search criteria in
a search
_____ Use single keystroke commands for commonly
used
options (such as Alt-V to go to view
keyword list)
_____ _____________________________________
_____ _____________________________________
Write Other Suggestions Here:
Please fill out this ballot and return to Texasoft, PO
Box 1169, Cedar Hill, Texas 75104, or fax to 214-291-3400.
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