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Hints and Tips 1

Hints and Tips 2

Hints and Tips 3

Hints and Tips 4

Buttons.

 Buttons can be set up to automate regular operations, and can also help to make life easier for occasional users. Their use is fully described in the Manual, but commands are typed into the command box of the button, and activated by clicking the button. (look up 'commands' in the Index.). So, if you would like to set up a button to insert today's date into a field:

 Choose View, Modify Button

and point and click the mouse on a blank area of the button bar.  Choose an icon from those offered on the left of the 'dialogue' box and type in the following command in the command box:

  'EditInsertDate'

Type in a description such as 'Inserts Date into Current Field' and Click on OK. You will now see another button on the bar and clicking on it will insert the date at the cursor.

 Using Buttons to Edit All Records

 You can use buttons to automatically edit all or a subset of records. For example if you needd to note that all records in the database have been audited by today, this is how you might do it:

 Create a new Field (in Field Define Types) called Auditdate of type date. Then find all Records and create a Button. In the button box type in:

HitListCommand("

FieldAppend(\"auditdate\")

EditInsertDate

")

 Warning - always try any hitlistcommand button out on a hit list of 1 before letting it loose on the entire database! Otherwise you can do untold damage. So always backup the data before carrying out any extensive restructuring.

A Button to set up an address label

If you create an address label in Idealist from a series of separate address fields it leaves gaps where a field is blank - this can be annoying. One way out is as follows:

Create a Calculated Field Called Addresslabel which will be created from your address fields (such as Address1, Town, County Code). Create a button with a description of 'Create New Record). In the button type:

 RecordCreate("YourRecordType")

Insert(Mid(\"=\"+ Name + If(name =\"\",\"\",\"\\r\\n\") + address1 + IF(address1 = \"\",\"\",\"\\r\\n\") + address2 + IF(address2 = \"\",\"\" ,\"\\r\\n\")+ address3 + IF(Address3 = \"\",\"\",\"\\r\\n\") + town + IF(Town = \"\",\"\", \"\\r\\n\") + county + postcode + \"\\r\\n\" + Country ,2,32000)")

 In result mode this will automatically create a new record and when you type in the address details the labeladdress field will be created. . The \r\n creates a newline.

Customizing the Button Bar

If you have more than one idealist database you will want to have a separate button bar and definitions file for each database. To do this copy the iwin.bar and iwin.def file from the Idealist programme Directory (look either for c:\idealist or c:\progs\i) into the directory the database is stored in (c:\usr\i\yourdbdirectoryname) and rename the files with the same name as your database. i.e. MyDatabase.win and MyDatabase.def. When you open up the database next time these will be used instead of the standard iwin.def and iwin.bar.

Deleting Buttons

You can delete a button by deleting reference to it in the bar file. So open the Notebook application from the Accessories programme group and open the file called either iwin.bar or mydatabase.bar - find the reference to your unwanted button and delete the offending line. You can also move buttons by simply rearranging their position in the .bar file.

Backing Up Idealist

You can back up idealist several ways (look up Backup in the Index). But to back up to multiple Diskettes, you will either want to use PkZip or Microsoft Backup (look for a file or icon called MWBACKUP - normally found in Applications group or in DOS directory). Mwbackup will be described in your computer manuals. PkZip can be obtained in a ShareWare version. Both programmes compress data by as much as a factor of 5, and can copy data to span discs. To set it up copy PKZIP from floppy disc.:

 1. put floppy disc with the Pkzip into drive A: Go to Ms_dos Prompt and type A: and press enter. Then type:

copy pk*.* searchdir

(where searchdir is the name of a directory mentioned in the PATH command in the C:\autoexec.bat file. C:\DOS is normally in the PATH so: copy pk*.* c:|dos should be suitable). Type C: and press Enter, and Exit back into windows.

 2. create an icon

(from Windows choose File Menu, and New. Select OK and type 'PKZip Idealist Backup' in the description box.

Type 'c:\dos\pkzip.exe -r-p-& a:\databup.zip *.* ' in the Command Line.

 Type C:\usr\i in the Working Directory Line

 Choose OK and this will backup all files in c:\usr\i and any directories below.

 To Unzip it you create a similar icon but the command line is pkunzip -d a:\databup.zip c:\usr\i

Articles for the Next Issue. Please send in any hints or tips or experiences in Idealist you would like to see printed.

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