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BOOK ORGANIZER - HELP

1 How to use
2 Troubleshooting
3 Contact OXD Software


1 How to use

1.01 Handling projects
1.02 Adding movies
1.03 Editing movies
1.04 Deleting movies
1.05 Using clear
1.06 Edit your own values
1.07 Print movie lists
1.08 Adding cover pictures
1.09 How to Search with Fast search
1.10 How to Search with Advanced search
1.11 Using hotkeys


1.01 Handling projects

All information about your books are stored in a project.
All project files have the extension .bko, like this 'MyBooks.bko'.
When you start Book Organizer for the first time a new project will be loaded.
You can always see the name of your project in the programs titlebar.
To save an unnamed project you have to select 'File | Save project as...' and select whatever name you would like to call your projectfile.
To save a project that already have a name select 'File | Save project'.

NOTE! You should not mistake 'Save book' with 'Save project'. The project is the database that contains all your books. When you select 'Save book' you save a book to the project. If you add some books to a project and forget to save the project file, all the data you added will be lost.


1.02 Adding books

To add a book to the project enter a name in the book title-field.
You can also enter any additional data such as categories, writer, language etc.
When you're finished entering information select Save book from the toolbar or by using the menuitem 'Book | Save'.

NOTE! When a book is selected in the book list you can not enter a new book, only change the selected one. To be able to enter a new book you have to clear the fields. To do that press Clear on the toolbar or by using the menuitem 'Book | Clear'.


1.03 Editing books

To edit a book you already have entered, look it up in the book list and select it.
The information about that book should be visible in the editable fields below.
Change whatever you would like to change and select 'Save book' from the toolbar or by using the menuitem 'Book | Save'.


1.04 Deleting books

To delete a book you already have entered, look it up in the book list and select it.
Then select 'Delete book' from the toolbar or by using the menuitem 'Book | Delete'.


1.05 Using clear

When you've selected a book in the movie list you have to press Clear to be able to enter a new book.
If you have started entering information and would like to clear the fields and start over you will also have to clear the fields first. To clear select 'Clear' from the toolbar or by using the menuitem 'Book | Clear'.


1.06 Edit your own values (such as categories, writers etc)

A combobox is a box with a small arrow beside it where you can select a specified option.
Category and writer are examples of such comboboxes.
You can add your own content in these boxes by selecting the 'Edit' menu.
You can edit your own categories, sub categories, writer categories, writers, publishers, people, languages and difficulties.
When you have added a new item it will appear in the combobox when closing the 'Edit' form.

Example: Let's say you would like to add a new item to the Category combobox.
Select 'Edit | Edit categories' in the menu.
Enter the the new item you would like to add and press the save button.
When you're finished adding items exit the program by pressing the OK button.
Now press the arrow on the category combobox and you will see your newly added items.

NOTE! You can only delete the combobox values that aren't in use, thus you can not delete a combobox value that is added to a movie.


1.07 Printing book lists

Printing is NOT available in v1.0.0.


1.08 Adding cover pictures

On the Various-tab there's a frame called 'Front cover'.
Press Add and select a cover picture. It's possible to add JPG, GIF and BMP.
The added cover picture should appear in the black box adjusted to fit the window.
If you press the Fullscreen button or doubleclick on the small picture you will see the cover in full size.

When you press Add you will always end up in a folder in the Book Organizer directory called Covers. It's preferred that you use this folder for all your cover pictures and don't have your cover pictures in different places.

NOTE! The actual pictures are NOT stored in the database, since this would make the database too large to handle. Only a reference to the file on your harddisk is stored. This means that if you should load your project-file on another computer you will have to copy the covers as well.


1.09 How to Search with 'Fast search'

You can use Fast search to search on all text fields, and comboboxes such as Writer.
If you want to search on any other fields you have to use Advanced search. See section 1.10.

Fast search example 1:
You would like to search for all book titles that contains with the word 'mission'.
First make sure no fields are filled in by clicking on the Clear button or by selecting 'Book | Clear' from the menu. Then enter the word 'mission' in the book title field and select 'Book | Fast search' from the menu. Now all books containing the word 'mission' in the title will show in the book list.

Fast search example 2:
You would like to view all books written by Stephen King.
First make sure no fields are filled in by clicking on the Clear button or by selecting 'Book | Clear' from the menu. Select 'Stephen King' in the writer box followed by 'Book | Fast search' from the menu. Now all books written by Stephen King will show in the book list.
(If you can't find a writer called Stephen King in the writer box it's because you haven't added him to your list of writers.)

Fast search example 3:
You can of course combine your searches and narrow your search.
Lets say you would like to view all books written by Stephen King with the word 'mission' somewhere in the book title. First make sure no fields are filled in by clicking on the Clear button or by selecting 'Book | Clear' from the menu. Select 'Stephen King' in the writer box and enter the word 'mission' in the book title field. When you select 'Book | Fast search' from the menu all book written by Stephen King with the word 'mission' in the title will show in the book list.

NOTE! You can not use the Fast search to search for any option fields such as Recommended, Read the book, Marked as lent out etc.
If you want to search on any of these fields you must use Advanced search.


1.10 How to Search with 'Advanced search'

Advanced search is a very powerful search feature and you can search on all the book fields, in any combination. To start an Advanced search click on the Advanced Search button or select 'Book | Advanced search' from the menu.

Add search criterias with the button 'Add search criteria', and remove search criterias with the button 'Remove search criteria'. Then press Search when you're finished and all books matching your search criterias will show in the book list.

Advanced search example:
Lets say you would like to view all books that are translated into another language.
Before you start, notice that the Search string says 'SELECT ALL Books'.
Click on the button 'Add search criteria'. Select 'Translated' in Field, '= (EQUALS)' in condition and select 'TRUE' in the Value box. Press on the button 'Add criteria'.
You will now see that the Search string says 'SELECT ALL Books WHERE Translated = TRUE'.
To finish the search all you have to do is pressing the button Search.


1.11 Using hotkeys and shortcuts

Whenever you see that a letter is underlined it means that it is a hotkey.

The Book, Grade, Loans and Various tabs are examples of this.
The File, Edit, View, Book and Help menuitems are other examples.

If you keep ALT pressed followed by 'g' you will change to the Grade tab.
If you keep ALT pressed followed by 'k' you will change to the Book tab.
If you keep ALT pressed followed by 'f' you will open up the File menu.
and so on...

If you open up a toplevel menu you'll see that most menuitems are followed by shortcuts. Examples:

F2 will start a new project.
F4 will save your project.
CTRL+F performs a Fast search.
CTRL+A performs an Advanced Search.
CTRL+S saves a book to the project.
CTRL+F1 opens up Edit category.
CTRL+F2 opens up Edit sub category.
and so on...


2 Troubleshooting

Book Organizer will not work without MDAC (Microsoft Data Access Components) installed on your computer. MDAC is a set of database drivers that Book Organizer uses to communicate with the database. There are two downloads available on this site. One that includes MDAC, and one that doesn't. If you have downloaded the version without MDAC, and you can't get it to run on your computer you may have to install MDAC separately.

Download MDAC separately [6.5 Mb]


3 Contact OXD Software

To contact me for feedback, bugreports etc, send an e-mail to:
micke#oxidy.net (Replace # with @ before sending the e-mail)

Visit the OXD Software homepage at:
www.oxdsoftware.com

Visit the Movie Organizer homepage at:
www.movieorganizer.com

Copyright © 1998-2008 OXD Software