EXAMPLES This document provides 3 examples that illustrate the usage of Ambrose's Chronology of History and will help the user quickly become familar with the program. EXAMPLE 1: Goal: To become familiar with log files and the Chronologies Menu for viewing the General Chronology Lists. EXAMPLE 2. Goal: To become familiar with modifying the program parameters. EXAMPLE 3. Goal: To become familiar with the Rulers & Leaders Chronology and War Chronology features. EXAMPLE 1. Goal: To become familiar with log files and the Chronologies Menu for viewing General Chronology Lists. 1. To start the program, make sure you are in the [HISTORY] directory by typing cd \HISTORY and pressing the [ENTER] key. To start the program, type history [ENTER] The program begins by displaying a title screen and loading necessary information. Press any key to continue once the prompt [Enter to Continue] appears. 2. Open a log file for saving any desired information. If using a mouse, move the mouse over to the File Menu (at the top of the screen) and press the left mouse button. If a mouse is not available, enter the letter 'F' to acces the File menu. 3. Access the Open Log Files option by moving the mouse over to the Open Log Files line and pressing the left mouse button. 4. You will prompted to enter a filename up to 8 characters. Enter the following filename: example1 [ENTER] A suffix of .log will automatically be appended to the filename. The log file will appear as example1.log in the HISTORY subdirectory when the program is exited. 5. Select the Modify Parameters Menu by moving the mouse over to the Modify Parameters Menu area and press the left mouse button. If a mouse is not available, enter the letter 'M' or use the arrow keys to highlight the Modify Parameters Menu and press the [ENTER] key. 6. Select the [Time Periods...] option. A sub-menu listing the 7 available time periods will be displayed. 7. Select the Era of Kings option. A message will appear indicating that the chronology information associated with the selected Time Period is being accessed. The Time Period Information window (lower right corner) will have the Era of Kings line highlighted and the Time and Year Status window (top left corner) will reflect the new time period and effective year range. 8. Select the Chronologies Menu. 9. Since the General Chronology List option will already be highlighted, press the [ENTER] key. The General Chronology List can also be accessed quickly from the main program screen by pressing the F2 Key. A chronology listing showing history entries starting from the year 1600 will be displayed. 10. Since a log file has already been opened, information from this display can be saved to that file. Type in 'L' to save this information to the file. If a log file had not been opened earlier, an error message would have appeared. 11. Press the [End] key. The last page of the chronology listing will be displayed. 12. Now press the [Home] key. The first page of the chronology listing will be displayed. 13. Start paging down through the chronology listings using the [PgDn] key or moving the mouse over to the PgDn box and pressing the left mouse button. It will soon become apparent that several [PgDn] key strokes will be necessary to reach the page containing entries in the 1700s year range. 14. To reach the information in the 1700s quickly, select the Options box by typing in 'O' or using the mouse. 15. Select the Go to Year... option by typing in the letter 'G' or by moving the mouse to the Go to Year... option line and pressing the left mouse button. A message box will appear prompting for a year to be entered. Type in the numbers: 1700 [ENTER] This will cause the program to position to the chronology information associated with the 1700s and highlight the first entry having a start year of 1700. 16. To view a reading list, select the Bibliography option from the Options box. This can also be done by pressing the F3 Key. A reading list will always be associated with the entry that is currently highlighted. This information may also be saved to the log file by typing in 'L' or moving the mouse over to the Log box and pressing the left mouse button. 17. To exit the bibliography display, press the [ESC] key or move the mouse over to the ESC to Quit box and press the left mouse button. The chronology listing will be reappear. 18. To exit from the chronology listing display, use the [ESC] key or move the mouse to the [ESC] box and press the left mouse button. 19. To close the log file, access the File Menu. Select the Close Log Files option. 20. Quit the program by accessing the File Menu and selecting the Quit option. This will exit the program and return to DOS. Once at the DOS prompt, the log file (example1.log) containing the program information saved may now be printed out using the following command: print example1.log EXAMPLE 2. Goal: To become familiar with modifying the program parameters. 1. Perform the steps 1-4 of Example 1, using a log filename of "example2". 2. Select the Era of Kings Time Period by moving the mouse directly to the Era of Kings line in the Time Period Status window (bottom right corner) and press the left mouse button. A message will appear indicating that the chronology information associated with the selected Time Period is being accessed. 3. Select the Chronologies Menu. 4. Since the General Chronology List option will already be highlighted, press the [ENTER] key. 5. Hit the [ESC] to exit the chronology listing. Select the Modify Parameters Menu. Now, by modifying the category and country program parameters, the information provided in the chronology listing will be greatly reduced to show only a subset of the total chronology information available. 6. Select the Country Selections option. 7. A 2-part Country Selection menu will be displayed. Using the mouse or the [PgDn] key, page down through the country list until England is displayed. Using an arrow key, highlight the England country entry and press [ENTER]. This entry can also be selected by moving the mouse to where the words are and pressing the left mouse button twice. Using this method, select the United States country entry and the Ottoman Empire country entry. 8. Now use the [ESC] key to exit the Country Selections menu. Although up to 6 countries may be selected, this example will use only 3 countries. The Country Status window (top right corner) will reflect the country selections. 9. Select the Category Status option from the Modify Parameters Menu. 10. The category statuses can now be modified. Pressing the F3 Key will set all the statuses off, while the F2 Key will set all categories and subcategories to an ON status. The F1 Key may be pressed for additional information on modifying the status of a subcategory or category. To view information associated only with Politics, Wars, and Treaties, the other categories will be set to OFF. 11. Use to TAB key to sequence down the category list. As each category is reached, it will be highlighted, along with its subcategory statuses. 12. Now the Year Range will be modified to produce a chronology listing between the years 1650 and 1750. Move the mouse to the Time and Year Status window (top left corner) and press the left mouse button. 13. A Year Range menu will appear showing the currently defined year range and prompt for a new Start Year entry. Type in 1650 [ENTER]. Next, at the End Year prompt, type in 1750 [ENTER]. Press the [ENTER] key once again to exit the Year Modification Menu. The Year Range menu will be exited and the effective year range will be updated in the Time and Year Range Status window (top left corner). 14. Select the Chronologies Menu. 15. Highlight the General Chronology List option and press the [ENTER] key. A chronology listing showing history entries starting from the year 1650 will be displayed, rather than from 1600. The type of information shown will consist of entries in the Politics, War, and Treaties categories occurring only in the 3 selected countries. 16. Access the Options menu and select the View Parameters option to view the parameter settings. The modified parameters will be reflected in this display. Hit the [ESC] key to exit this display. 17. To use the Search Item... feature, select the Options menu again. The Search Item... option will already be highlighted. Press the [ENTER] key. 18. A string input menu will appear. Enter the string "rebellion" [ENTER]. At the prompt, type in 'Y' to proceed with the search. The first entry (from the current highlighted position) whose event description containing the string will be highlighted. 19. To find any subsequent matches, use the Next option by typing in 'N' or using the mouse. The next occurring match will be highlighted. 20. To exit the General Chronology List, hit the [ESC] key. 21. Quit the program by accessing the File Menu and selecting the Quit option. This will exit the program and return to DOS. Once at the DOS prompt, the log file (example2.log) containing the program information saved may now be printed out using the following command: print example2.log EXAMPLE 3. Goal: To become familiar with the Rulers & Leaders Chronology and War Chronology features. 1. Perform the steps 1-4 of Example 1, using a log filename of "wars". 2. To view the War Chronology information, select the War Chronology option from the Chronologies Menu. A list of the major wars starting with Babylonian Wars 539 B.C. will be displayed. Save the information to the log file. 3. Using the [PgDn] key, access the next page of information. Using the Log option, save this information also. 4. To view additional information on a war, highlight the desired war and press the [ENTER] key. This may also be done by double-clicking the mouse on the desired war. Once this is done, the major battles of the war will be displayed along with information about the battle outcome. 5. For a description of the war, press the [F4] Key. A brief description of the war will be displayed. Save this information to the log file. Press the [ESC] key to get back to the battle listing. 6. For a reading list, press the [F3] Key. A reading list will be displayed. Press the [ESC] Key to return to the battle listing. Any of this information may be saved to the log file. 7. Use the ESC to Quit option to exit the war /battle display. The Major Wars listing will be re-displayed. 8. To return to the main program screen, press the [ESC] key again or move the mouse over to the ESC to Quit box and press the left mouse button. 9. To view the Rulers Chronologies information, select the Rulers & Leaders Chronology option from the Chronologies Menu. The user will be presented with a prompt to enter a year or year range. If the [ESC] Key is pressed, a default year of 1500 is used. Enter the year 1656 at the prompt. Press [ENTER] at the End Year prompt. (For a year range, the End Year would have a specific value entered.) The information that will be displayed will be a list of the rulers and world leaders in power during the selected year of 1656. 10. Using the [PgDn] key, access the next page of information. Using the Log option, save this information. 11. Pressing the F1 Key will provide on-line help information. Pressing the F2 Key will allow the user to enter a new year or year range. 12. To return to the main program screen, press the [ESC] key again or move the mouse over to the ESC to Quit box and press the left mouse button. 13. To close the log file, use the Close Log Files option from the File Menu. 14. Quit the program by accessing the File Menu and selecting the Quit option. This will exit the program and return to DOS. Once at the DOS prompt, the log file (wars.log) containing the program information saved may now be printed out using the following command: print wars.log