***** ShowDB v2.1 ***** What is ShowDB? ShowDB gives the user an indexed view of their DAT files. I found this to be much more useful than the full record view of the built-in data application. It allows for fast scrolling of the display and for setting your own column widths. A small font toggle increases the display to 56 chracters wide. Any of the first 5 fields of your data file can be seen in this mode. However, pressing the enter key on any record will popup a complete view of the record with full scrolling within that record. I have also built in the ability to update existing records and add new ones. And, since many people were looking for this function, I added the ability to sort the data file on up to 5 fields. INSTALLATION 1. Copy ShowDB.opa to the \APP directory on any drive. 2. Make a directory called ShowDB on any drive. It must be directly off the root directory (e.g. A:\ShowDB). 3. Copy ShowFunc.opo and Showdb.fon to the ShowDB directory you just created. After you have started to save setups, (see below) you will see another file in this directory: Showdb.odb. If you currently use ShowDB and have a ShowDB.odb file, it will not work with this new version. Sorry for the inconvenience. 4. From the system menu, install the ShowDB application by pressing Psion-I and completing the dialog box. 5. The ShowDB icon will appear and underneath will be a list of all your existing data files in any drive's \DAT directory. A Quick Tour To start ShowDB, simply highlight the data file of your choice and press the enter key. Once in ShowDB, you will be placed on the first record, indicated by the arrow in the left-most column. To move the record pointer, use the following keys: Dn Arrow - Next record Up Arrow - Prev record Psion-Dn arrow - Down one screen Psion-Up arrow - Up one screen Psion-End - Last Record Psion-Home - First record Practice moving around your data file. Also try pressing the enter key to see a full view of your data. If the record has more than 6 lines of data, you can use the up and down arrows to scroll. Arrows on the right will indicate whether or not more lines are available for scrolling. Press the enter or escape keys to return to the index view. Features To switch to a small font, press Psion-T. This toggles between large and small fonts. Large fonts allow for 37 characters across while small fonts allow for 56! This leads us to column setup. Press Psion-P. Enter the widths for each of the first 5 fields. You can skip a field if desired. Press enter and the info will be saved. Toggle to the other font size and do the same procedure. Now when you toggle back and forth, the proper widths will automatically be set. If you wish to hid the dots separating the columns, press Psion-H. This is also toggle. Entering & Updating Records Press either Psion-E or Psion-U to Enter/Update records. The dialog box that appears functions the same for both. Each Page contains 5 fields. The page number is in the title. Move between lines by pressing the up & down arrows. Pressing enter will perform the action specified in the last line. It defaults to NEXT. Pressing enter will cycle through the 4 pages and then go back to the first page. If you want to go to the previous page, move to the last line and press TAB. Choose PREVIOUS and press enter. When you are ready to save your changes, choose enter on the last line and press enter. Choosing CANCEL or pressing Escape will cancel the Entering/Updating. Moving Around In addition to the movement keys described above, you can Jump to an entry in the index by pressing Psion-J. Enter the letter and press enter. You will go to the first record that has the first field beginning with that letter. The other search commands under the Search menu allow more extensive searching and function as in the Psion data application. Column Setup Here are some hints on setting column widths. The default is 23 & 14. This is perfect if your data file has the name in field 1 and the main phone number in field 2: Robinson, Ned...........(914) 555-1212 I also have an important dates data file that is set up as 7, 26 & 4 for the first 3 columns: 01/01..New Years Day.............1900 Of course, the small fonts display allows even greater creativity! Sorting You can sort your file on any combintion of 5 fields, although I'll warn you up front that each sort field you add slows things down even more. Press Psion-S to bring up the Sort dialog. Press TAB to get a list of fields. The first field in the list is always blank so choose that if you want to remove a field from the sort. Duplicate fields are not allowed. You must also enter your fields consecutively so that if you put a field in sort field 1 and sort field 3, sort will only work on sort field 1. Each sort field is limited to 128 characters max. If the field is longer, it will be truncated. The maximum cummulative sort string for all fields is 255 characters. File List ShowDB.opa ShowDB.fon ShowFunc.opo ShowDB.wrd ShowDB.txt ShowDB.odb (created by ShowdDB, not included) Ending I hope you find ShowDB useful. Press Psion-W for registration information. Thank you.