Album Trax Version 1.0

July 1, 1990

Saugatuck Software Inc.













































Album Trax
Version 1.0
User's Guide




Saugatuck Software Inc.
P.O. Box 2238
Westport, Connecticut 06880

CompuServe: 71571,3647










































i






LICENSE AND WARRANTY NOTICE

Album Trax and this documentation are:
Copyright (c) 1990 by Saugatuck Software Inc.
All Rights Reserved.


LICENSE AGREEMENT

Non-Registered Users:

You are granted a license for 30 days to review Album Trax
in order to determine if it meets your requirements. If
after this evaluation period you decide to continue to use
Album Trax, you must register this software with Saugatuck
Software Inc. See page iii for registration information.

Registered Users:

This Software may be used by any number of people and may
be freely moved from one computer location to another so
long as there is NO POSSIBILITY OF IT BEING USED AT ONE
LOCATION WHILE IT'S BEING USED AT ANOTHER.

Saugatuck Software Inc. authorizes you to make archival
copies of the software for the sole purpose of backing up
our software and protecting your investment from loss.


WARRANTY AND DISCLAIMER

SAUGATUCK SOFTWARE INC. MAKES AND YOU RECEIVE NO WARRANTIES OR
CONDITIONS, EXPRESS, IMPLIED, STATUTORY OR IN ANY COMMUNICATION
WITH YOU, AND SPECIFICALLY DISCLAIMS ANY IMPLIED WARRANTY OF
MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.

Saugatuck Software Inc. does not warrant that the operation of
the program will be uninterrupted or error free.


LIMITATION OF LIABILITY

IN NO EVENT WILL SAUGATUCK SOFTWARE INC. BE LIABLE FOR ANY
DAMAGES, INCLUDING LOSS OF DATA, LOST PROFITS, COSTS OF COVER
OR OTHER SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL, CONSEQUENTIAL OR INDIRECT DAMAGES
ARISING FROM THE USE OF THE PROGRAM OR ACCOMPANYING
DOCUMENTATION, HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY.
THIS LIMITATION WILL APPLY EVEN IF SAUGATUCK SOFTWARE INC. OR
ANY AGENT HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.







ii






Album Trax v1.0 Registration Form




Name: ________________________________________________

Company: ________________________________________________

Address: ________________________________________________

________________________________________________

City: ________________________________________________

State: ________________________ Zip Code: ___________

Phone: ________________________________________________



Where did you receive Album Trax? _______________________

__________________________________________________________

Comments: _______________________________________________

__________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________



Registration - $25.00: $
(Check or Money Order)

Shipping outside U.S. - $5.00:
(Payments MUST be in U.S. Dollars/U.S. Bank)

Subtotal: $

Connecticut Residents Add 8% Sales Tax:

Total: $





Remit to: Saugatuck Software Inc.
P.O. Box 2238
Westport, Connecticut 06880




iii



Contents



Getting Started ............................................... 1

Introduction .............................................. 1

Features .................................................. 1

Quick Start ............................................... 2

Printing the User's Manual ................................ 3

Configuring Album Trax ........................................ 4

ALBUMCFG.EXE - The Album Trax Configuration Program ....... 4

Command Line .............................................. 4

Commands .................................................. 5

Database ............................................ 5

Printer ............................................. 6

Colors .............................................. 7

Video ............................................... 11

Reset ............................................... 12

Quit ................................................ 12

Album Trax Commands ........................................... 13

Introduction .............................................. 13

Command Line .............................................. 13

Commands .................................................. 14

File ................................................ 14

Add ................................................. 18

Browse .............................................. 22

Locate .............................................. 24

Print ............................................... 25

Tools ............................................... 28

Quit ................................................ 29

Index ......................................................... 30





Getting Started
______________________________________________________________________________


Introduction


The Album Trax professional database system was developed
specifically for an audio collection. Professionals as well as
the casual audiophile will benefit from Album Trax's efficiency
in organizing CD's, records and tapes.

Features


Pull-down menus, pop-up windows, DESQview aware
and mouse support.

Context sensitive help is always available with
over 50 individual help screens.

Album Trax's intuitive data entry form makes
entering your audio collection a snap.

Each record can handle 4 sides/12 songs per side
for a total of 48 songs with a field available for
comments.

Virtually unlimited capacity. Album Trax can
manage over two billion records.

FAST record searching for either records or songs.

Locating records and songs can be done for exact
matches or for the closest match.

Browse records by Artist, Title, Year Recorded,
Category, Label or Date Modified.

Print options allow you to print either individual
records or all records matching your search
criteria.

Print records to Printer, Disk or in Rolodex
format.

Multiple indexing system with all indexes stored
in one file.

Variable length records provide efficient use of
disk space.

Tools to Compress databases and Rebuild indexes.

Fully configurable. User selectable colors,
default filenames, video settings and more.




Album Trax User's Guide Page 1


Getting Started
______________________________________________________________________________


Quick Start


1) Album Trax consists of the following files:

ALBUMTRX.EXE - Album Trax.
ALBUMTRX.DOC - What you're reading now.
ALBUMTRX.HLP - The Album Trax Help file.
ALBUMTRX.TRX - The default database, created by ALBUMTRX.
ALBUMTRX.IDX - The default index, created by ALBUMTRX.
SAMPLE .TRX - A sample database...
SAMPLE .IDX - ...and it's index.
ALBUMCFG.EXE - The Album Trax Configuration Program.
ORDER .FRM - The Album Trax Registration Form.
STRIPHI .COM - Album Trax Documentation print utility.
LASER66 .COM - Utility to set laser printer to 66 lines.

Create a Directory [i.e. MKDIR C:\ALBUMTRX] and copy the
above files to it.


2) Now, to get started, just type ALBUMTRX at the DOS command
prompt.

Note: Laptop users type ALBUMTRX /W
Monochrome users type ALBUMTRX /M
If you have difficulty seeing the mouse
cursor, type ALBUMTRX /WM


Album Trax will create the default database ALBUMTRX.TRX and
the default index ALBUMTRX.IDX. To start adding records, use
the "Add" command and just follow the instructions on the
screen. You can obtain HELP at any time via the F1 key.

If you want to "look around" before you start entering records,
use the "File/Load" command, move the cursor to SAMPLE and
press . Now use the "Browse" command to view the sample
database. The sample database contains over 200 records and it
will give you a good indication of the power, speed and flexi-
bility of Album Trax.















Album Trax User's Guide Page 2


Getting Started
______________________________________________________________________________


Printing the User's Manual


To print this documentation, set your printer for six lines
per inch, and ten characters per inch, then use the DOS PRINT
command:

PRINT ALBUMTRX.DOC

You may also use redirection:

TYPE ALBUMTRX.DOC > LPT1


Note: If you are using a laser printer, you can
use the supplied program "LASER66.COM" to
set your printer to 66 lines per page.
LASER66 sends the following string to
the printer:
"E(10U&l66p2e7.6c66F"

Note: If your printer does not support the IBM
extended character set, use the supplied
program "STRIPHI.COM" to print this
documentation. STRIPHI 'strips' ASCII
characters above 127.

UMMMMMMMMMMM8
If: Prints as: 3 3
TMMMMMMMMMMM>

Use STRIPHI, which will print the box as:

+===========+
| |
+===========+

Enter "STRIPHI ALBUMTRX.DOC PRN" to send
the output directly to your printer, or
"STRIPHI ALBUMTRX.DOC ALBUMTRX.BAK" to send
the output to a file.















Album Trax User's Guide Page 3


Configuring Album Trax
______________________________________________________________________________


ALBUMCFG.EXE - The Album Trax Configuration Program


Album Trax stores it's configuration information in
"ALBUMTRX.EXE" (this method is used as opposed to a separate
configuration file). In order to configure Album Trax, both
"ALBUMTRX.EXE" and "ALBUMCFG.EXE" must reside in the current
working directory.

Please remember that since the configuration information is
written to the executable file "ALBUMTRX.EXE", the file's
time and date will be updated and it's CRC value will
change.

Note: ALBUMCFG.EXE is not needed to run Album
Trax, therefore, you may want to move
ALBUMCFG.EXE to a separate disk after
configuration to conserve disk space.


Command Line


Command Line Syntax:

[d:][path]albumcfg

Command Line Switches:

/c - CGA snow elimination
/b - BIOS screen writing
/w - B/W text attributes
/m - Monochrome text attributes

Note: Laptop users type ALBUMTRX /W
Monochrome users type ALBUMTRX /M
If you have difficulty seeing the mouse
cursor, type ALBUMTRX /WM


















Album Trax User's Guide Page 4


Configuring Album Trax
______________________________________________________________________________


Commands


When you start ALBUMCFG, you will be presented with the
following menu:

Album Trax Configuration v1.0 F1=Help



Database
Printer The remainder of this
Colors chapter will go through
Video each configuration option.
Reset
Quit





1) Database



Database

Mixed Case Data Entry : On
Default File Name
Enter Default Database:
Qu C:\ALBUMTRX\RECORDS




Mixed Case Data Entry:

When entering data, characters are forced to upper-case
or lower-case depending on the prior character. This
speeds data entry as you do not have to use the shift
key. If you prefer not to use this feature, then press
to toggle "Mixed Case Data Entry" to Off.

Default File Name:

When you run Album Trax, the "Default Database" is the
file that is used as the current database. If this file
does not exist, Album Trax will create it, and you will
see the following message before Album Trax starts:


Building RECORDS.TRX and RECORDS.IDX




Album Trax User's Guide Page 5


Configuring Album Trax
______________________________________________________________________________


You can use any valid DOS filename including path, how-
ever, you do not need to include file extension as .TRX
is assumed (if you specify an extension, it will be
ignored).

Note: If you specify an invalid path, Album Trax
will exit with the following error message:

Abnormal program termination!
Database Error.
Error reading or writing file:
"C:\BADPATH\RECORD.TRX"

2) Printer



Database
Printer

Port : LPT1
IBM Graphics : On
Default File Name
Enter Default File Save Name:
C:\ALBUMTRX\ALBUMTRX.FIL




Port:

Press to toggle between LPT1 and LPT2 to select
the printer port.

IBM Graphics:

Some printers cannot support the IBM extended character
set. When you print a record, if underlined words such
as:

Side 1 Side 1
Prints as: DDDDDD

then toggle "IBM Graphics" to Off.

Default File Name:

Album Trax has the ability to save records to a disk file
in the same format as when you use your printer. This is
useful if you want to save your records to a file for
printing later. When you select "Print/File" in Album
Trax, the "Default File Name" will be supplied for you.
You can then either press to add records to that
file, or you can change the name before saving.


Album Trax User's Guide Page 6


Configuring Album Trax
______________________________________________________________________________


3) Colors



Database
Printer
Colors All window, text and message colors
are easily selectable to suit your
Windows personal taste.

Menus
Input Fields
Clock
Fill Character
Help




After you select an item you will be presented with a color
selection chart and a "Sample Window." As you move the color
selection box (with either the cursor keys or a mouse), the
"Sample Window" will reflect the changes. will record
the selection, while will cancel it.

Note: The colors changes for the configuration
program itself will not take effect until
after you "Quit" and restart ALBUMCFG.



Text



[ Sample Window ]
File Update 1:00a

Load
Create
Drive Window Text





Title: Abbey Road
Artist:The Beatles









Album Trax User's Guide Page 7


Configuring Album Trax
______________________________________________________________________________


Windows:


Windows

Text
Border
Title
Shadow




The Window Text, Border, Title (and messages) and Shadow
are selectable with the "Windows" menu. Examples of
windows that are effected are the "Main Menu" and the
"Browse" and "Locate" windows. You can disable the
"Shadow" by selecting the first box in the color
selection chart.


Menus:


Windows
Menus

Window
Border
Text
Quick Sel Character
Non-selectable Text
Selection Bar




"Menus" effect the pull-down menus used in Album Trax.
The menu Window, Border and Text color can all be
changed.

When you are presented with a pull-down menu, the choices
can be selected either by moving the "Selection Bar" and
pressing or by pressing the "Quick Selection
Character" (i.e. 'F' in File). The color of both the
selection bar and the quick selection character can be
changed.

If a choice is non-selectable (i.e. "Pg 1" while viewing
page one) you cannot move the selection bar to that
choice and the quick selection character is disabled. A
color of black or dark grey is suitable for
"Non-selectable Text."



Album Trax User's Guide Page 8


Configuring Album Trax
______________________________________________________________________________


Input Fields:



Windows
Menus
Input Fields

Descriptions
Input Fields
Text




The data entry form ("Add" from the Album Trax Main Menu)
consists of input fields for you to record the informa-
tion to be stored by Album Trax. The color of the input
field "Descriptions" such as 'Title' and 'Artist' can be
changed as well as the color of the "Text" that you actu-
ally input. The "Input Field" color is the background
color of the field where the cursor is currently located.


Clock:

The current time is always available in Album Trax in the
upper right hand corner of the screen. Select the first
color if you want to turn the clock off.


Fill Character:

"Fill Character" is the background of the Main Menu
screen. When you select Fill Character, you will be
presented with the following characters from which you
can select as the background 'Fill' character:


Fill Character
. ! . \ # $ % & ' ( ) * + , - . / 0 1 2 3
4 5 6 7 8 9 : ; < = > ? @ A B C D E F G H I
J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z [ \ ] ^ _
` a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u
v w x y z { | } ~

. .





Select the first character if you do not want a back-
ground character.


Album Trax User's Guide Page 9


Configuring Album Trax
______________________________________________________________________________


Help:


Windows
Menus
Input Fields
Clock
Fill Character
Help

Window
Text
Selection Bar
Referenced Text




[ Help ]

Album Trax
(c) Saugatuck Software Inc.


Sample Text:

Press F1 at any time for
context-sensitive help


See Also: About
Help Index





Context sensitive help is always available in Album Trax
via F1. There are over 50 Help Screens that are exten-
sive enough that this User's Manual will not be needed
too often. Most of the Help Screens are "Referenced" to
related topics in hyper-text format, so that you can
navigate through the help topics by moving the "Selection
Bar" and pressing .

Select a color for the Help "Window" and "Text" then
select colors for the "Selection Bar" and "Referenced
Text."








Album Trax User's Guide Page 10


Configuring Album Trax
______________________________________________________________________________


4) Video



Database
Printer
Colors
Video

Direct Screen Writing : On
BIOS Screen Writing : Off
Color Text Attributes : On
Monochrome Text Attributes : Off
CGA Snow Elimination : Off




Direct Screen Writing / BIOS Screen Writing:

The Fastest video performance is obtained by use of
"Direct Screen Writing", however this can create problems
with some multi-tasking software. If you experience
problems with your multi-tasking software, toggle "BIOS
Screen Writing" to On.

Note: Album Trax is DESQview aware.



Color Text Attributes:

If you have a black and white monitor, or a laptop
computer, toggle "Color Text Attributes" to Off.



Monochrome Text Attributes:

If you have a monochrome monitor, toggle "Monochrome Text
Attributes" to On.



CGA Snow Elimination:

The fastest performance is obtained with "CGA Snow
Elimination" set to Off. Some CGA monitors, such as
the original IBM CGA experience 'snow' and flicker when
the screen is updated. If you experience this problem,
toggle "CGA Snow Elimination" to On.





Album Trax User's Guide Page 11


Configuring Album Trax
______________________________________________________________________________


5) Reset



Database
Printer
Colors
Video
Reset

Yes - Restore Factory Settings
No - Continue w/User Settings




If any time you want to restore the "original settings"
that Album Trax came with, you can do so by selecting
"Yes - Restore Factory Settings."



6) Quit



Database
Printer
Colors
Video
Reset
Quit

Yes

Save
No Save




After you configure Album Trax you must save the settings
and colors that you selected.

Select "Quit/Yes/Save" to save the current settings and
Exit, or select "Quit/Yes/No Save" to Exit without saving
your changes.









Album Trax User's Guide Page 12


Album Trax Commands
______________________________________________________________________________


Introduction


The Album Trax professional database system was developed
specifically for an audio collection. Professionals as well as
the casual audiophile will benefit from Album Trax's efficiency
in organizing CD's, records and tapes.

Command Line


Command Line Syntax:

[d:][path]albumtrx <[d:][path]database>

Note: If you specify the optional Album Trax
database and it does not exist, it will
be created and you will see the following
message:


Building DATABASE.TRX and DATABASE.IDX


If you specify an invalid path, Album Trax
will exit with the following error message:

Abnormal program termination!
Database Error.
Error reading or writing file:
"C:\BADPATH\DATABASE.TRX"



Command Line Switches:

/c - CGA snow elimination
/b - BIOS screen writing
/w - B/W text attributes
/m - Monochrome text attributes

Note: Laptop users type ALBUMTRX /W
Monochrome users type ALBUMTRX /M
If you have difficulty seeing the mouse
cursor, type ALBUMTRX /WM

Note: See "Configuring Album Trax" to make
settings permanent.








Album Trax User's Guide Page 13


Album Trax Commands
______________________________________________________________________________


Commands


When you start Album Trax, you will be presented with the
following menu:


File Add Browse Locate Print Tools Quit 1:00a


The remainder of this section will discuss each command and
the options that are available.


1) File


File

Load The File command has a number of
Create options that deal primarily with
Copy Album Trax files, such as Loading,
Append Creating, Copying, Appending and
Count Counting. You also have options
Drive for changing the Drive and
Directory Directory to facilitate File
OS shell commands and also for Jumping to
About DOS. The About command will give
you a system information summary.



Load:


Load

..\
.\
DOS\
ALBUMTRX
SAMPLE







Before any Album Trax functions can be preformed, a
database must be loaded. When you start Album Trax,
the database specified on the command line is loaded,
or if none is specified, then the default database is
loaded (see "Configuring Album Trax").


Album Trax User's Guide Page 14


Album Trax Commands
______________________________________________________________________________


Use "Load" to change the current database. Any database
that exists on the current drive can be loaded (to load a
database that is located on another drive, use the
"Drive" command first).

You will be presented with all available Album Trax data-
bases in the current working directory (without the .TRX
extension) as well as DOS directories. If you select a
directory, you will be presented with a listing of data-
bases in that directory. Select "..\" to move to the
parent directory. By selection of directories, you can
navigate through the current drive searching for Album
Trax databases.

Once you locate the database that you want to use, move
the cursor (or type the first letter of the filename) and
press . All Album Trax operations will now be
performed on this database, as indicated in the bottom
status line.



Create:


Load
Create
Enter Name of Database to Create:
C:\ALBUMTRX\RECORDS

Dr
Directory
OS shell
About




When you select "Create" you will be presented with the
name of the current database. Pressing any alpha-numeric
key will clear the field so that you can enter a new
name, or use an editing key (such as ) to edit the
name. Once a name is selected, pressing will
prepare a blank database and index and will automatically
be loaded so that you can immediately begin to add
records to the new database.

Note: If you enter the name of an existing data-
base, you will be given a warning that the
old database will be destroyed.






Album Trax User's Guide Page 15


Album Trax Commands
______________________________________________________________________________


Copy and Append:


Load Load
Create Create
Copy Copy
Append
..\
.\ ..\
DOS\ .\
ALBUMTRX DOS\
SAMPLE ALBUMTRX
SAMPLE




Copy:

The "Copy" command will make a copy of the selected data-
base and is useful in backing up your data. The Album
Trax copy command is not the same as the DOS copy command.
Album Trax copies data record by record, removing any
unused deleted space (when a record is deleted, it will
remain in the database until you add a record that will
fit in it's space). The database will also be resorted
by Artist and Year for faster operation.

Note: The "Compress" command will also remove
unused deleted space and resort the data-
base.

This process can take awhile depending on the size of
the database that you are copying, however you can cancel
"Copy" by pressing .


Append:

"Append" is similar to "Copy", with the only difference
being that you can add records from one database to
another. This is useful if you want to consolidate data-
bases. If you interrupt this process by pressing ,
then only the records up to the point you pressed
will be appended.

Note: Album Trax does not check for duplicate
records.

Note: If the database you specify to append to
does not exist, it will be created, and the
"Append" command will now be identical to
"Copy", except that will only inter-
rupt the process and you will have created
a partial database.

Album Trax User's Guide Page 16


Album Trax Commands
______________________________________________________________________________


Count:

Count will report the number of records in the current
database. To count records in another database, use the
"Load" command first. After viewing the following screen,
press any key to continue:


There are 832 Records in "RECORDS"




Drive and Directory:


Load Load
Create Create
Copy Copy
Append Append
Count Count
Drive Drive
ory Directory
A:\> Enter New Directory:
C:\> C:\ALBUMTRX
D:\>




Drive:

When you select "Drive", Album Trax will present you with
a list of available drives on your system. Move the
cursor to the drive you want to change to (or press the
drive letter) and press . You must use this command
if you want to load a database from another drive.

Directory:

The Directory command lets you set a new current drive
and/or directory by prompting you for the new drive
and/or directory name. The prompt is initialized to the
current drive and directory, so you can also use this
command to examine the current drive and directory
settings.


OS shell:

The OS shell command starts a DOS command processor so
that you can type commands exactly as if you were at the
normal DOS prompt. It is important that you do not exe-
cute any memory resident programs while in a shell, as
you will leave a hole in memory and may crash Album Trax.

Album Trax User's Guide Page 17


Album Trax Commands
______________________________________________________________________________


When you have finished entering DOS commands, type "Exit"
to return to Album Trax.



About:

"About" will report information about your system.
For example:


DOS version: 3.31 BIOS programs dated: 01/29/87
Color Graphics Adapter Math co-processor not present
1 Parallel Port 2 Serial Ports
Memory:
Free Used Total

DOS conventional memory: 280k 360k 640k
EMS 4.0 expanded memory: 80k 944k 1024k




2) Add


Once you have Created or Loaded an Album Trax database,
you are ready to add your audio collection. Note that the
default Album Trax database is automatically loaded when you
start Album Trax. The default is "ALBUMTRX.TRX", however,
you can specify your own default. See "Configuring Album
Trax" for instructions.


When you select "Add", you will be presented with the
following data entry screen:

[ Alt-Q to Quit ][ F1 - Help ]

Title: Year: 19
Artist: Label:
Category: Format:

Side 1 Time Side 2 Time

1. 0: 0 1. 0: 0
2. 0: 0 2. 0: 0
/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/
12. 0: 0 12. 0: 0

Comments:

[ Adding to "RECORDS" ][ PgDn - Sides 3 and 4 ]



Album Trax User's Guide Page 18


Album Trax Commands
______________________________________________________________________________


Data entry is quite simple, and after adding a few
records you will see how easy it will be to organize your
audio collection.

First enter the 'Title' of your album, CD or tape. Now
press to process the field and automatically
proceed to the 'Artist' field. After entering the artist
you will see that when you move to the 'Category' field
the following menu pops-up:


Rock
Classical
Jazz
Other




You can select a 'Category' by moving the cursor or by
pressing the quick selection character. If none of the
suggested categories fit your record, then just select
'Other' and enter any category that you wish.

Note: You are not limited by the predefined
categories. You can enter any category
you wish by selecing 'Other'.

After entering 'Year' and 'Label' you will automatically
move to the 'Format' field and the following menu will
pop-up:


Album
CD
DAT
EP
Single
Cassette
Video
Other




As with 'Category', you are not limited to the predefined
formats. Select 'Other' to enter any format that you wish

You now are ready to enter the individual songs and their
playing times (Album Trax allows you to enter up to 48
songs per record). The current screen is for sides 1 and
2. Enter the name of the first song, press , and
then enter the playing time. After entering Side 1, use
the key to skip pass the unused fields to Side 2.
Once Side 2 is completed, press for Sides 3 and 4

Album Trax User's Guide Page 19


Album Trax Commands
______________________________________________________________________________


if needed (you can always go back to Sides 1 and 2 with
). To record a 'Comment' for the record, you can
quickly jump to the last field by pressing to
move to the end of the 'Comment' field, then to
move to the beginning of the field.

Before saving the record, you may want to go back to a
field to make a change. By use of the following keys you
can easily navigate the form:

Home - Beginning of Field
End - End of Line/Field
Ctrl-Home - Beginning of First Field
Ctrl-End - End of Last Field
Tab - Next Field
Shift-Tab - Previous Field
Arrow keys - Cursor Movement
Ctrl-LeftArrow - Word Left
Ctrl-RightArrow - Word Right
PgDn - Sides 3 and 4
PgUp - Sides 1 and 2

Note: If you accidentally erase or edit a field,
use to restore the original field.


Now that the record is complete, you still need to save
it to disk for permanent storage. will save
the record, but will first ask:


Is this information correct? N




Enter 'Y' to process the form, or 'N' to continue with
this record.

Note: F10 will save the record without the
confirmation message.

After the record is saved, all the fields will be cleared
for you to enter the next record. When all records are
entered, press to return to the Main Menu.

Note: Be sure to save the current record with
or F10 before you enter
.







Album Trax User's Guide Page 20


Album Trax Commands
______________________________________________________________________________


The following is a summary of all editing keys available:


Data Entry and Cursor Movement


Enter - Process Current Field
Ctrl-Enter - Save Record
F10 - Save Record Without Confirmation
Home - Beginning of Field
End - End of Line/Field
Ctrl-Home - Beginning of First Field
Ctrl-End - End of Last Field
Tab - Next Field
Shift-Tab - Previous Field

Inserting and Deleting


Ins - Toggle Insert Mode
Del - Delete Character at Cursor
BackSpace - Delete Character Left
Ctrl-BackSpace - Delete Word Left
Ctrl-T - Delete Word Right
Ctrl-U - Delete to End of Field
Ctrl-Y - Delete to End of Form
Ctrl-R - Restore Original Field

Other Editing Keys


Shift-F1 - Display Registration Number
Arrow keys - Cursor Movement
Ctrl-LeftArrow - Word Left
Ctrl-RightArrow - Word Right
PgDn - Sides 3 and 4
PgUp - Sides 1 and 2
Alt-Q - Quit Data Entry


















Album Trax User's Guide Page 21


Album Trax Commands
______________________________________________________________________________


3) Browse


Browsing records allows you to view all records in a
selected database sorted in one of the following orders:



Artist
Title
Category
Year
Label
Format
Date




The first six choices are fairly obvious, however, "Date"
needs a little further explanation. The "Date" command
will sort the current database in the order of when you
entered or last modified a record (the date of last modi-
fication will be indicated in the upper-right hand corner
of the screen). This command is very useful in updating
hard copies of your records. For example, to print out
all records that you added or changed in the last month,
just select "Browse/Date" then "Last." Now just "Print"
the Last record, go to the "Previous" record and continue
until you have printed all new or modified records.


After selecting a sorting option you will be presented with
the following screen and options:

Pg 1 Pg 2 Next Prev First Last Edit Delete Print Find Quit


"Who's Next" by The Who
Recorded in 1971 on MCA
[Rock Album]

Side 1 Time Side 2 Time

Baba O'Riley 4:59 Getting In Tune 4:49
Bargain 5:33 Going Mobile 3:40
Love Ain't For Keeping 2:11 Behind Blue Eyes 3:40
My Wife 3:35 Won't Get Fooled Again 8:31
Song Is Over 6:16

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

Comments: Lent to Tony 4/2/90



Album Trax User's Guide Page 22


Album Trax Commands
______________________________________________________________________________


While in "Browse", the following options are available to
you:



Page 1:

View Page 1.
Non-selectable while viewing Page 1.
Selectable with or '1'.

Page 2:

View Page 2.
Non-selectable while viewing Page 2.
There will be an indication in the lower-left hand corner of
the screen if there is data on Page 2.
Selectable with or '2'.

Next:

View the next record.
Selectable with '+', 'N' or Space Bar.

Previous:

View the previous record.
Selectable with '-' or 'P'.

First:

View the first record.
Selectable with or 'F'.

Note: In "Locate" the first record matching the
search criteria will be displayed.

Last:

View the last record.
Selectable with or 'L'.

Note: In "Locate" the last record matching the
search criteria will be displayed.

Edit:

Edit the current record.
You will be presented with a data entry form identical to
the one you used to originally "Add" the current record to
Album Trax. You will be able to change any field while in
Edit mode. Alt-Q will allow you to abort Edit.
Selectable with 'E'.




Album Trax User's Guide Page 23


Album Trax Commands
______________________________________________________________________________


Delete:

Record will be irrecoverably removed from disk.
You will first be presented with a confirmation message.
Selectable with 'D'.

Print:

Print the Current Record or Records matching the search
criteria to:

1) Printer
2) File
3) Rolodex

The printer port (LPT1 or LPT2), the default Filename and
IBM graphics can be configured (see "Configuring Album
Trax"). Rolodex will send a summary to 2 x 4 inch rolodex
cards.

Find or Scan:

Find an "Exact" match or Scan for the "Closest" match.

Quit:

Return to Main Menu.



4) Locate


Locate gives you many options for searching for records or
individual songs in an Album Trax database. After selecting
"Locate" select either "Record" or "Song":


Record Record
Song
Find
Scan Find
Scan




Now decide if you want to "Find" an exact match, or "Scan"
for the closest match. For example, if you "Find" the
Artist 'Neil Young', you will miss records listed under
'Young, Neil'. A "Scan" for 'Young', however will locate
records for 'Neil Young', and 'Young, Neil' as well as
'Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young' and 'Paul Young'.



Album Trax User's Guide Page 24


Album Trax Commands
______________________________________________________________________________


After selecting either "Find" or "Scan" you will be
presented with the following pop-up window for "Record":


Title:
Artist:
Label:



Note: Only ONE field needs to be entered to
perform a search. It is NOT necessary
to enter ALL fields.

Or the following pop-up window for "Song":


Song:




If you are locating a "Record", you will be presented with
the first matching record in the database in the same format
and with the same options as "Browse" (See "Browse" for
available options once a record is located). Remember that
since the first record in the database that matches your
search criteria is located, no sorting is performed.

If you are locating a "Song", a maximum of 200 matching
songs will be presented and you will have the option of
saving the selected songs to a file, or printing them.

Note: The 'Comment' field is also searched.

You will find Album Trax's searching ability to be extremely
fast and flexible in both "Find" and "Scan" mode.



5) Print


Print allows you to print an entire database using a variety
of sorting options in the following three formats:


Printer
File
Rolodex



Note: To print selected records, see "Browse" or
"Locate"

Album Trax User's Guide Page 25


Album Trax Commands
______________________________________________________________________________


Note: Some printers cannot support the IBM
extended character set. When you print
a record, if underlined words such as:

Side 1 Side 1
Prints as: DDDDDD

then see "Configuring Album Trax" to toggle
"IBM Graphics" to Off.

Printer:


Printer Printer
File
Artist Rolodex
Title
Category Artist
Year Title
Label Category
Format Year
Label
Format



Printing records can be accomplished in either standard
8 by 11 inch format or for 2 by 4 inch Rolodex cards.
By using the Rolodex format, you can maintain a hard copy
of your collection in a Rolodex file.

The 8 by 11 inch format is similar to the data entry
screen format with the addition of the playing times
being totaled:

|o|----------------------------------------------------------|o|
|o||o|
|o| "Who's Next" by The Who |o|
|o| Recorded in 1971 on MCA |o|
|o| [Rock Album] |o|
|o| Comments: Lent to Tony 4/2/90 |o|
|o||o|
|o| |o|
|o| Side 1 Time Side 2 Time |o|
|o| |o|
|o| Baba O'Riley 4:59 Getting In Tune 4:49 |o|
|o| Bargain 5:33 Going Mobile 3:40 |o|
|o| Love Ain't For Keeping 2:11 Behind Blue Eyes 3:40 |o|
|o| My Wife 3:35 Won't Get Fooled Again 8:31 |o|
|o| Song Is Over 6:16 |o|
|o| |o|
|o| 22:34 20:40 |o|
|o| |o|
|o||o|
|o|----------------------------------------------------------|o|

Album Trax User's Guide Page 26


Album Trax Commands
______________________________________________________________________________


The Rolodex format looks like:

|o|-----------------------------------|o|
|o||o|
|o| |o|
|o| "Who's Next" |o|
|o| by The Who |o|
|o| 1971, MCA |o|
|o| [Rock Album] |o|
|o| Lent to Tony 4/2/90 |o|
|o| |o|
|o| |o|
|o| |o|
|o|-----------------------------------|o|



File:


Printer
File

Artist
Title
Category
Year
Label
Format
Enter File to Append Records:
ALBUMTRX.FIL




Printing to a file is in the identical format of
printing to the "Printer." Printing to a file is
useful if you do not currently have access to a
printer and want to save records to a file for
printing at a later date.

After selecting a sorting option you will be
presented with the default filename as selected
in "Configuring Album Trax." Press to
use the default filename, or enter a new name.

Note: If the file already exists, then
the records will be appended to the
end of the file.







Album Trax User's Guide Page 27


Album Trax Commands
______________________________________________________________________________


6) Tools



Rebuild "Rebuild" and "Compress" are
Compress two database file maintenance
options that are available in
Album Trax.


Rebuild:

Rebuild is only needed if the Album Trax database
index file (.IDX file) becomes corrupt or is miss-
ing. Rebuild will recreate the index so that you
can access the database. Only use this option if
you receive an error message telling you to use
"Rebuild" or an error message relating to the index
file.

Depending on the size of the database "rebuild" can
take awhile and the process cannot be interrupted.


Compress:

Album Trax is extremely efficient in saving data.
Variable length records are used, thereby utilizing
disk space efficiently and the space occupied by
deleted records is reused, therefore there is no
need to purge deleted records (deleted records are
retained until a record is added that will 'fit' in
it's space).

After awhile however, there may be some wasted
space and this is where "Compress" is useful as it
will remove any deleted records and any wasted
space. "Compress" will also resort the database by
"Artist" and "Year" thereby increasing performance.

Depending on the size of the database "Compress"
can take awhile, however, the process can be
cancelled by pressing .


Note: Due to Album Trax's efficient data-
base management, you should not
need to "Compress" a database too
often.







Album Trax User's Guide Page 28


Album Trax Commands
______________________________________________________________________________


7) Quit



Yes Select "Yes" to end an Album Trax
No session or "No" to continue.




Alternatively, you can Exit Album Trax from almost
anywhere with Alt-X, where the following window
will pop-up:



Exit Album Trax? N




'Press Y' to end the session, or 'N' or to
continue.


































Album Trax User's Guide Page 29

A Index

Album Trax Commands 13 Non-selectable Text 8
About 18 Port 6
Add 18 Printer 6
Append 16, 27 Quick Selection Character 8
Browse 22 Quit 12
Command Line 13 Reset 12
Compress 16, 28 Restore Factory Settings 12
Copy 16 Save 12
Count 17 Selection Bar 8
Create 15 Shadow 8
Delete 24 Text 8
Directory 17 Title 8
Drive 17 Video 11
Edit 21 Windows 8
File 14 Consolidate 16
Find 24 Current database 5, 15, 17, 22
First 23
Last 23 D
Load 14, 15
Locate 24, 25 Date 22
Next 23 Deleted records 28
OS shell 17 Duplicate records 16
Page 1 23
Page 2 23 E
Prev 23
Print 24, 25, 26, 27 Editing keys 21
Quit 29
Rebuild 28 F
Tools 28
Artist 18, 19, 22, 25 Features 1

B H

Backing up 16 Help 10

C I

Category 18, 19, 22, 26 IBM extended char set 3, 6, 26
Comment 18, 19, 25
Configuring Album Trax 4 P
BIOS Screen Writing 11
Border 8 Playing times 19, 26
CGA Snow Elimination 11 Printer 6, 24, 25, 26, 27
Clock 9 Printing 3, 26, 27
Color Text Attributes 11
Colors 7 Q
Command Line 4
Database 5 Quick Start 2
Default File Name 5, 6
Direct Screen Writing 11 R
Fill Character 9
IBM Graphics 6 Rolodex 26, 27
Input Fields 9
LPT1 6 S
LPT2 6
Menus 8 Save 20
Mixed Case Data Entry 5 Songs 24, 25
Monochrome Text Attr 11 Sort 22, 27

Album Trax User's Guide Page 30