Card Index

Card Index is a useful database program which keeps information organised as

a series of lines, called fields, which are initially labelled Name, Address, Tel.

and Other. These are displayed on the screen in a style similar to a real box of

cards. You might like to use it to keep a directory of your friends or business

associates.

To begin with you need to tell Card Index the name of the 'file' in which your

cards are stored, which is done by pulling down the Card Index menu again and

selecting 'Load Index'. At this point a window will pop up on the screen

suggesting a name for the file and the computer will wait for you to press

If you wish to use another file, with a different name, you will need to

select it from within the Catalogue program first -- see below for details. Once

the appropriate file has been chosen, the pop-up window will disappear, and

after a brief pause the fields in the window will fill up to show the first card in

the file.

To move to other cards you can click on the left- and right-arrows or the

double-arrow icons to travel through the Card Index one card or ten cards at a

time respectively.

Changing the information on the card is very simple: point the cursor to the

line you want to alter, and then type in the new information, using ifyou

make a mistake.

To search for a particular card, you need first to move the cursor to the

appropriate line (Name, Address etc.) and then click on the 'Find' icon. A

window will pop up asking you what text you want to search for, and after

entering it and pressing , the program will check each card for a match.

The search is quite versatile; you may type just a single letter or several words

and if any of the cards contain the text in the selected field then the first such

card will be displayed. Further matching cards may be seen by clicking on the

left- and right-arrow icons, whilst 'Restore' will allow you to see the whole file

again (rather than just the matching cards).

The first time you select the Card Index window it will be blank, allowing you to

create your own card index simply by filling in the blank lines in each card.

When you have entered the information, or after making changes to an

existing card index, pull down the Card Index menu and select 'Save Index':

this will save the index onto the disc for future use. The computer will once

again suggest a name for your file, which you may accept by pressing

alternatively you can use to delete the suggested name and enter your

own. You„ should not use the Welcome disc for this purpose, and you may wish

to first consult the section on 'Filing Systems' later in this guide.

B 3