N-DEX ENHANCED INDEX CARD DATABASE Version 1.0 Copyright (C) 1989 SeaPac Industries All Rights Reserved. Authorized for SDN/Works!(tm) Distribution as ShareWare. July 30, 1989. REGISTRATION $19.95 * Pennsylvania Residents add 6% Sales Tax $1.20 Total $21.15 * Tax exempt entities must provide tax-exempt number and form. Individuals as well as businesses may register this version for the above amount. The commercial release will retail for $32.95. Registered copies will receive a free copy of the commercial version. To register this copy: Inclose a check or money order for the appropriate amount as listed above payable to: SeaPac Industries or: D. Fred Nichols or: William T. Nichols II. Addressed to: SeaPac Industries 17 1/2 North Third Street Sharpsville, Pa. 16150-1232 What is N-dex? N-dex is an enhanced version of the standard index card - that small piece of paper which is an indispensable standard around the office, school and home. With N-dex, you can easily create and maintain database files on hotels, professional contacts, employees, family members and friends. You can include comments, directions to locations, personal information, and keep records of conversations and performance. Confidential records can be kept in an encrypted format through the use of a password system; records not requiring protection are stored in a standard ascii format. N-dex gives you the ability to generate reports on people's birthdates, on keywords describing a person or place, or on the locations in your database by state and city. N-dex also contains a simple text editor for the generation of encrypted, confidential messages for transmission over E-mail networks. Each message is encrypted using a password you supply and can only be read using that password (and a copy of N-dex, of course). N-dex can also encrypt messages written using other text editors, and read-in, decrypt, display and print messages so encrypted. Using N-dex... N-dex is Menu Based, and has context sensitive help available. To start N-dex simply type in the name Ndex at the DOS prompt and press the return key. If you need help at any time, press the F1 key. After the program has loaded, you will be prompted for a password. This can be any combination of keystrokes (or no keystrokes, if you do not plan to use encryption). Enter your password and press . You will be asked to re-enter your password, to confirm that you entered it correctly. The password does not control access to the program or to the records on your disk. It is, rather, used to encrypt your files. Thus, while you can load any file on the disk, even a file encrypted by someone else, you can only read files you know the password for. If you forget the password for a file, the file will be gibberish, and therefore worthless to you. So remember your passwords! Page 2 After you have entered your password correctly, you will be prompted for the path to your Command.Com file. This file must be available somewhere on disk in order to use N-dex. Enter the correct path (or press F1 for instructions) to your Command.Com and press . You will be prompted next for the path to your database files. This is the location and drive designator where you wish your files to be stored. The complete path (such as: A:\Ndex ) must be entered, and must exist on your disk. N-dex handles two main filetypes, Names and Places. The Names filetype is oriented towards the personal information you would wish to have handy when calling an old friend with whom you have lost touch. It includes such things as birthdays, address, family members, pets and hobbies. The Places filetype is oriented towards locations. It contains such information as name, description, address and directions (how to get there). The address in the Places filetype is broken out by Street, City and State and is searched through the Reports window. Addresses are not searched in the Names filetype, but birthdays are. After you have entered the path information, you will be prompted to select a filetype. Highlight (using the arrow keys) the type you desire(Names or Places), or press for Names (the default). The next piece of information N-dex needs is whether you desire to create a new file, or use an existing file. If you are using N-dex for the first time you may wish to play with the sample files included on the distribution disk. The Names file is called Friends, and the Places file is called Hotels. Using the Arrow keys highlight Use Existing to use an existing file or highlight Create New to create a new file. Creating A New File: If you chose to create a new file you will be prompted for a filename, with the current default filename given in the filename window. Either accept the default name, or modify it to the desired name and press the key. N-dex will check to see if ANY files exist in your directory with the root filename you have entered, and display the filenames (if any) that exist on the screen. If any files with your filename exist, N-dex will ask if you would like a different name. IF YOU CHOOSE TO USE A FILENAME THAT ALREADY EXISTS, ALL (I REPEAT, ALL) FILES WITH THAT NAME WILL BE ERASED. For this reason, it is a good idea to periodically back-up your files, in case they are inadvertently erased. Once you have selected a filename, a blank form will be displayed on which to enter the appropriate information. You will be in the Name field initially. Type in the name and press either the key, the Esc key, or the Tab key. From this point you can Tab or Shift+Tab to the desired field and enter information by either pressing a letter key or the Right Arrow key. Once in a field, the Home key will take the cursor to the first letter in the field, and the End key to the last. Esc, Tab, or Enter will exit the field. Once you have finished entering information and have left the current field, pressing the Esc key will exit the information form. At this time, you will be asked if there are more entries, if you wish to continue select Yes, otherwise select No. Page 3 Using An Existing Database: If you choose to use an existing database, N-dex will look for a directory file listing available files on your disk. If this file is absent, N-dex will shell to DOS and make this file(this is why Command.Com must be available). Once the directory is read, N-dex will display a listing of the files available. Select the desired filename using the arrows, PgUp or PgDn keys and press the key. The Main Menu. Finally, whether you created a new file or used an existing file, you have survived the 50 million questions and gotten to the main menu. You obviously won't want to go through this inquisition each time you start up N-dex and, thankfully, you don't have to. One of the options in the main menu is called Defaults. With it you can save your paths, filetype and filename as well as whether you desire encryption as default setups. You can also change the color scheme using the Set Colors option in the Defaults Menu. To save your defaults, use the arrow keys to highlight the Defaults menuname (or press D to automatically jump to the Defaults menuname) and press the key. The Save Current option will be highlighted automatically. To save the current defaults, simply press the key. The defaults file will be saved to the directory from which you started N-dex. Next time you use N-dex, start it by typing "Ndex /d" at the DOS prompt (not the quotes, of course, just what is between them). N-dex will load the defaults file and take you right to the main menu, which looks similar to what you see printed below. N-dex - The Personal Data System. Ver 1.0 View Edit Files Print Defaults Comments Reports Messages Security Quit Path to Command.Com: A:\ Path to Datafiles: A:\NDEX\ Filetype is NAMES Encryption is OFF. Page 4 The upper three lines make up the program title and the 10 main menu options. These menu items are selected by highlighting them either with the arrow keys or by pressing the first letter of the item desired, followed by pressing the key. The box in the lower right hand corner of the screen presents information about the current paths and filetype. The highlighted statement in the lower left hand corner of the screen states whether encryption is turned on or off, and the last line on the screen (not shown above) presents the current filename and record name. From this point on, the best way you can learn to use N-dex is to explore. Each menu, including the main menu, has a help screen associated with it. This screen is accesses by pressing the F1 key. The help screen describes each of the menu items and, when necessary, gives instructions about how to use the menu. The help window will appear in the bottom of your screen and is two lines long. Once activated, use the arrows or PgUp/PgDn keys to read all of the help available at a particular point in the program. Press Esc to continue. If you get to a place where you do not wish to be (such as Select File Name) pressing the Esc key will usually (with a few exceptions) return you to the main menu. ABOUT ENCRYPTION: A few words are in order with regard to the encryption scheme used in this program. It was developed by D. Fred Nichols in the Nichols Research Facility (NiRF), located at SeaPac Industries and is not based on any particular encryption scheme other than that suggested by it's author's ingenuity. As such, the degree of difficulty involved in decrypting an encrypted file by someone skilled in decryption is unknown at this time. The author believes the encryption is to a level suitable for confidential information but would never entrust it with anything requiring greater protection. The program runs slower when operating in the encrypted mode, since it has to encrypt and decrypt the files, so it is probably wise to use encryption only when absolutely necessary. This is probably wise in general anyway, since you will have lost your information if you forget your password. The final comment about encryption is to say again that encryption does not control access to your files, just the ability to read them. Anyone can destroy a file on a disk to which they have access, simply by copying over the file. Providing a system password to the N-dex program would only control access to the use of the program, and not protect your files from tampering by unauthorized persons. The point is, you should protect your investment and back up your hard disk or floppy disk files on floppy disks to which only you have access. The encryption used by N-dex will then protect your files from prying eyes, and your floppy disk will protect your files from destruction. Future Versions Future versions will include user-define layouts and fields. Also, the next version will not prompt you for the path to command.com. Page 5 ADDRESSES AND CONCLUSION We hope that you find N-dex to be a handy and fun tool for your business and family needs. If you have any problems, the author can be reached at: D. Fred Nichols 2058B Crossroads Pl. Albuquerque, NM 87118 505 268 4176 or: William T. Nichols II. President SeaPac Industries 17 1/2 North Third Street Sharpsville, Pa. 16150-1232 Fidonet Node 1:237/85 24 Hour BBS Support at (412)-962-0765 300/1200/2400 N-8-1 SDN/Works! (tm) 100:10 SDN Echomail Conference Member Just for fun, this entire text file was encrypted using the Encrypt Text File in the Secrets sub-menu. It can be decrypted using the password "bobby". Compare the two files using the TYPE command from DOS, or simply print them using PRINT MAN_NDEX.* from DOS. The text file is MAN_NDEX.TXT and the encrypted file is MAN_NDEX.MSG. ###