Copyright: BCC Ver. 1.0 Copyright 1993 by T. Cuscino


HELP TABLE OF CONTENTS

BUSINESS CARD CATALOG FOR WINDOWS VERSION 1.0

General Information

General Program Description

Registration Form

Searching For Records

Database Structure

Program Specifications

Review of Menu Commands

File Menu

Save File

Print Card

Exit

Edit Menu

Find/Edit Card

Add Card

Delete Card

Help Menu

Contents

Search On

Help on Help

Registration Form

About BCC for Windows


GENERAL PROGRAM DESCRIPTION

Introduction

Business Card Catalog (BCC) for Windows, Version 1.0, is a shareware product designed to automate the business card index keep on most business desks.  This tool can also serve as a personal address book for home use.  Once confidence is established in utilizing BCC, the business user can free desk space by removing the index from the desk and the home user can eliminate the search for the often tattered and hard-to-find address book.

BCC permits the user to perform the functions necessary to maintain a card catalog including: 1) searching for cards by last name, company name, or state; 2) adding a card; 3) deleting a card; 4) changing information on an existing card; and 5) printing the information on a selected card.  The search function provides the user a feature which most manual business card indexes are not set up to perform since most indexes are organized on last name only.

Disclaimer

BCC is provided with no warranty of any kind expressed or implied, including but not limited to the implied warranties for merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose.  In no event shall the author be liable for any loss of profit or any other commercial damage, including but not limited to special, incidental, consequential or other damages.


Registration Form
REGISTRATION FORM FOR BCC FOR WINDOWS, VERSION 1.0

Name   :	__________________________________________________

Address:	__________________________________________________

__________________________________________________

__________________________________________________

Where did you find this program:

Compuserve   ________    If Yes, list CIS No.  __________________

BBS (list name and phone)    ________________________________

Other (identify)    _________________________________________

Comments:	__________________________________________________

__________________________________________________

__________________________________________________

Mail appropriate fee listed below to:

Thomas Cuscino Jr.

T. Cuscino Consulting Engineering

7802 E. 170th St.

Belton, MO  64012

No. of Copies Distributed at Site	Price

0-4	15.00 ea.

5-100	12.00 ea.

100-1000	 8.00 ea.

1000+   	 5.00 ea.


SEARCHING FOR RECORDS

BCC for Windows Version 1.0 is designed to allow the user to search for records based on a match between a user-defined search string and the text in one of three user-selected fields.  The selected field can be last name, company name, or state.  The search is not case-sensitive and only a portion of the string needs to be given.  For example, 'smith' will match with 'Smith'.  The only requirement for the user-defined search string is that it represent the first characters in the field you are searching.  For example, 's' will find 'Smith', 'Simpson', 'Smart', etc.  However, 'sm' will match only with 'Smith' and 'Smart'.  Finally, 'mit' will not match with ''Smith' but would pick up 'Mitton'.

A useful feature is that leaving the user-defined string empty will pick up all records where the selected field is empty.  Consequently, a blank search string for the state field will pick up all records with no entries in the state field -- usually persons or companies outside the U.S.  The program does not currently support logical operators nor is the user permitted to alter the fields on which the search is made beyond the three choices given.


DATABASE STRUCTURE

BCC for Windows Version 1.0 creates a database named contacts.asc.  The file is an ASCII comma-delimited file with quotes around each individual text field (which includes all 17 fields in each record).  An ASCII comma-delimited file was selected because the user can easily look at the file outside BCC with any text or byte editor or viewer.  A second advantage offered by the comma-delimited file feature is that the record can be variable length.  Database files are traditionally fixed-length, meaning that a field takes up a fixed number of characters whether or not the field actually contains any data.  In contacts.asc, an empty field requires only 3 bytes to support 2 quotes and a comma.  This feature produces about a 45% reduction in the file size for the average business card catalog as compared to the standard fixed length format which one would find in a fixed length file format (e.g. in an xBase file).

Each field in contacts.asc has a maximum number of characters it supports.  While the user can enter characters beyond that maximum in most of the text entry boxes, the entry will be truncated at the maximum when saved.  The following table lists the field and the maximum number of characters allowed in each field:

Field	Max. No. of Characters

Last Name	15

First Name	15

Middle Initial	 2

Prefix	10

Title	40

Company Name	40

Building Number	35

Street	25

City  	25

State	 2

Zip Code	10

Country	20

Area Code	 3

Work Phone	 8

Extension	 7

Fax    	 8

Home Phone	 8

Another feature of a comma-delimited file is that the actual fields cannot have a comma within them since the program actually counts commas to determine what field it is at.  BCC will initially allow the user to type a comma in an entry field, but as soon as the user attempts to save the change or deletion to memory, a message box will inform the user that the comma will be changed to a dash.


PROGRAM SPECIFICATIONS

BCC for Windows, Version 1 is  designed to work within specific limits.  The program alerts the user to some limits through message boxes; however, others are documented only in this help document.  The limitations are listed below.

1)	Each field has a maximum number of characters as specified in the Database Structure help topic.

2)	The user cannot add more than 110 records at one time before being required to save the records and leave the program.  If more records need to be added, the user can again enter the program and enter another 110 records, etc.


Saving the Database
SAVE FILE

Under the menu entitled "File", the user has the submenu choice "Save File".  This choice actually saves the records to the file contacts.asc which is located in the same directory as the program.  The choice will not be active until the user has either added, deleted or changed a record and will become disabled again as soon as the user has saved the file.  In order to understand this procedure, it is important to understand that when the program starts, a copy of the file is placed in memory.  All changes, deletes and adds are made to the copy of the file in memory; however, it is not until the "Save File" submenu choice is selected that the file on the hard drive is changed.  This allows the user the option to exit without saving the changes made.  If the copy in memory is changed and the user attempts to exit without selecting "Save File", a message box will inform the user that changes have been made and ask the user whether the data should be saved to file or not.  The desired action will then be taken and the program exited.


Print a Card
PRINT CARD

Under the "File" menu, the user is offered the submenu choice "Print Card".  This menu choice is only enabled when the user has a record displayed in the Find/Edit record information dialog box.  The print module uses the default windows printer selected.  The format of the printout is one field per line, one record per page.  Records can only be selected one at a time as they appear in the Find/Edit record information dialog box.


EXIT

"Exit" is the third submenu under the "File" menu.  "Exit" leaves the program after first checking if there were any changes, additions, or deletions to the records in memory.  If there were modifications, a dialog box will first inform the user that modifications have occurred and give the user a chance to save the file to disk before exiting.  The user can also exit by choosing "Close" in the system menu in the upper left-hand corner of the window which can be accessed by clicking with the mouse or using the ALT-spacebar keys.  Whether exiting in done through the system menu or through the "Exit" submenu, the user will be informed of modifications and given a choice to save to disk.


Find/Edit a Card
FIND/EDIT CARD

Introduction

The find and edit modules are programmatically identical; therefore, they are included under one submenu choice -- "Find/Edit Card" under the "Edit" menu.  They both involve first using the search dialog box as discussed in the topic entitled "Searching for Records".  If there are any hits, the BCC information dialog box will display the record information.  The user is able to view, change or print any matching records.  The only programmatic differences occur unseen by the user when the "NEXT REC" command button is chosen.  This will be discussed further below.

Find Card

The BCC information dialog box displays the information stored in all 17 fields of each record that matches the search string.  In addition, the total number of hits is displayed under the label "Total Number of Matches", and each match is numbered sequentially and that number displayed under the label "Match Number".  The user cycles through the matches by clicking the "NEXT REC" button or by hitting enter when the button has the focus.  On entering the dialog box, the focus is set to the "NEXT REC" button, although this can be changed using either the mouse or the tab key.  Once the last matching record is displayed, that record will remain in the display regardless of how many more times the user clicks or presses the "NEXT REC" button.  When the user is done looking at the matching records, the user can click the "CANCEL" command button or press the ENTER key when "CANCEL" has the focus.  Alternatively, the user can click on the search window and either conduct another search or select "CANCEL".  Either of these actions will unload the previously displayed matching information dialog box.

Edit Card

The user is free to move between fields in any of the matching records shown in the BCC Information dialog box.  The user will have no desire to do this if the objective is simply to find and view records; however, if the objective is to change information or correct entry errors, it is important to have this capability.  The user can move between fields by clicking on the field with the mouse or by pressing the TAB key until the appropriate field is reached.  The user can then change all or part of the information listed in that field.  In order to make the change in the copy of the record stored in memory, the user must click or press the "NEXT REC" command button.  If the change is being made on the last record, there is a tendency not to want to click "NEXT REC" because there is not a next record.  However, in order to change the copy in memory, and subsequently, the disk file, the user must press "NEXT REC" after all the changes are made on a particular record, even the last record.


Record Hit
HIT

A match between a user-defined search string and the information in the user-selected field being searched.


Add a Card
ADD CARD

Upon entry into the program, the user has only two enabled menu choices (other than to exit) -- "Find/Edit Card" and "Add Card".  When the "Add Card' submenu choice is selected, the user is presented with a dialog box which presents blank entry boxes for each of the 17 fields in the record.  The focus upon entry is on the first field which is the last name field.  The user can enter data in each field if desired.  Movement between fields can be accomplished by clicking on the field text box or by consecutively pressing the TAB key.  Reverse movement can be accomplished with SHIFT-TAB.  Once all the data are entered, the user must press the "ADD" command button to place a copy of the new record in memory.  Upon pressing "ADD" a new blank record form will appear.  At this point, data for another record can be entered or the user can exit the add mode by pressing "CANCEL".  When "CANCEL" is pressed, the current record information, whether blank or not will not be copied to memory.  Thus, if the user enters information into a record and decides not to save the record, pressing "CANCEL" will accomplish that desire.

Once a record is added to memory with the "ADD" command button, the user will be able to find the record in the "Find/Edit Card" algorithm.  This is the case even though the record has not yet been saved to disk.  This occurs because the "Find/Edit Card" algorithm searches the copy of the file in memory and not the actual file on the disk.  If the user would exit without saving the file and re-enter looking for the added record, that record would not exist.

One last point involves the fact that one cannot print from the Add a Record dialog box since this box is modal.  The user must first search for and display the record in the matching record information box before printing is enabled.


DELETE A CARD

The submenu item "Delete a Card" is the third submenu choice under the "Edit" menu.  This submenu is not enabled until the user obtains a match between a user-defined search string and a user-selected search field.  The methodology to search for a record was presented in the topic entitled "Searching for Records".  When a matching record is displayed in the BCC information dialog box, the user can click on the edit menu and then on the delete submenu.  At this point the copy of the card stored in memory will be marked for deletion but not yet deleted from the disk file.  As a matter of fact, the card will still appear in subsequent searches during the same session even though the card is marked for deletion.  The deletion is saved to the disk file when the user selects "Save File", or when responding "YES" to the dialog box which alerts the user that the file has changed and queries whether or not the user wants to save the file.

A card marked for deletion can still be printed.  A card marked for deletion cannot be unmarked; however, the user can exit the program without saving the change and then re-enter if additional work is to be performed.


HELP CONTENTS

The submenu "Contents" is the first choice under the "Help" menu.  This menu activates the BCC for Windows help program, bcc.hlp, that is packaged with the executable code.  This submenu brings the user into the help program at the "Table of Contents".  From this table of contents, the user can click on any underlined text to go directly to that topic.  The user can also move to other topics from the Table of Contents by using the search, history, back, and forward and backward browse buttons if they are enabled.


HELP SEARCH

"Search On..." is the second submenu choice under the "Help" menu.  Selection of this choice brings the user directly into the BCC for windows help program, bcc.hlp, at the keyword search window.  The user can the select the desired keyword and click on show topic in the upper potion of the window followed by the desired topic and the "GO TO" command button in the lower portion of the window.


Search Macro


HELP ON HELP

Help on Help is a file provided with Microsoft Windows 3.1.  This third submenu under the "Help" menu in BCC simply provides the user access to this Microsoft developed help file.  This file contains information regarding how to navigate through any help file.


About BCC
ABOUT BCC FOR WINDOWS VERSION 1.0

BCC for Windows Version 1.0 is copyrighted by T. Cuscino Consulting Engineering and is available for sale under the Shareware marketing concept.  The Shareware concept allows users to try this software for a reasonable period, about 2-4 weeks, after which the user either registers for the program using the Registration Form available in this help file, or else removes BCC from his or her computer.