Personal Knowbase Free-Form Notes Management Software Version 3.2

User's Guide

Take Control of Your Notes

8/7/2011 I Personal Knowbase User's Guide

Table of Contents Part I Getting Started 1 1 Overview of Personal...... Knowbase 1 2 New Features ...... for Version 3.2 2 3 Quick Start ...... 3 4 Tutorial ...... 4 Tutorial: Viewing...... an Existing Data File 4 Tutorial: Creating...... a New Data File 6 Tutorial: Copying...... Info from Other Applications 8 Tutorial: Working...... with the Index Window 10 Tutorial: Learning...... More about Personal Knowbase 12 Part II Personal Knowbase Basics 14 1 About Articles:...... Your Basic Units of Information 14 2 About Keywords...... and the Index 15 3 About Tags and...... Tagging Articles 15 4 About Active...... Links in Article Windows 16 5 About Hypertext...... Links in Article Windows 17 6 About Article...... Attachments 18 7 About Passwords...... and Privacy 18 8 About Queries...... and Logical Operations 19 Part III Step-by-Step Procedures: How to... 22 1 Entering Information...... 22 Creating New...... Information 22 Creating a...... New Data File 22 Entering New...... Information 22 Assigning...... a Keyword to an Article 23 Creating an...... Unassigned Keyword 24 Saving a Data...... File 25 Adding Details...... to Articles 26 Tagging an...... Article 26 Password-Protecting...... an Article 26 Associating...... a Web Address with an Article 27 Associating...... a File with an Article 28 Linking to...... a Web Address from Inside an Article 29 Linking to...... a File from Inside an Article 30 Creating Links...... between Articles 31 Bringing in Information...... from Other Sources 32 Importing ...... from a Text File 32 Importing ...... from a Cardfile File 34 Importing ...... from an HTML File 35 Importing ...... from an RTF File 36 Importing ...... Files from Windows Explorer 37 Copying Text...... from Another Windows Application 39 Contents II

Advanced Importing...... 40 Importing ...... a List of Keywords 40 Importing ...... from a Delimited Text File 40 Importing ...... from a File with Fixed-Width Columns 43 Importing ...... a List of Titles 46 Importing ...... from a Custom Format Text File 48 Importing ...... Email Message Text 50 Using OCR...... Software with Personal Knowbase 54 2 Retrieving Information...... 55 Finding Information...... 55 Opening an...... Existing Data File 56 Finding the...... Information You Need 56 Retrieving...... Related Articles 57 Retrieving...... Tagged Articles 58 Searching...... for Text 59 Locating Articles...... by Date 60 Opening an...... Article's Attachment 60 Advanced Retrieval...... 61 Finding Articles...... Not Associated with a Keyword 61 Finding Articles...... without Keywords Assigned to Them 62 Finding Articles...... with One Keyword Or Another 63 Finding Articles...... with Attachments 64 Finding Password-Protected...... Articles 64 Listing Keywords...... Related to Currently Shown Titles 65 Working with ...... Information 66 Listing Titles...... Associated with Specified Keywords 66 Creating a...... Printed Index 67 Listing the...... Number of Articles for Each Keyword 68 Viewing Keywords...... Common to Several Articles 69 Exporting ...... Articles to a Text File 69 Exporting ...... Articles to a Cardfile File 70 Exporting ...... Articles to Web Pages 71 Exporting ...... Articles to an RTF File 72 Exporting ...... Articles to a Delimited File 73 Printing Information...... 74 3 Changing Information...... 75 Modifying Information...... 75 Modifying...... an Existing Article 75 Replacing...... Text 76 Copying Articles...... between Data Files 77 Assigning...... a Keyword to Highlighted Articles 78 Assigning...... Keywords for Multiple Articles 79 Copying Keywords...... between Articles 80 Renaming...... a Keyword 80 Merging Keywords...... 81 Editing a Hypertext...... Link 82 Changing...... a Hypertext Link to Plain Text 82 Updating ...... Article Dates Automatically 83 Password-Protecting...... a Data File 84 Merging Data...... Files 84 Removing Information...... 86 Untagging...... an Article 86 Deleting an...... Article 86

II III Personal Knowbase User's Guide

Deleting a...... Keyword from an Article 87 Deleting Keywords...... from Multiple Articles 87 Deleting a...... Keyword from the Data File 88 Deleting All...... Unused Keywords 89 Removing...... an Article's Attachment 90 Removing...... Duplicate Articles 90 Removing...... a File's Password 91 Formatting Information...... 92 Formatting...... an Article 92 Changing...... a File's Default Font 93 Viewing Tabled...... Information in Proper Columns 94 4 Customizing...... Personal Knowbase 95 Customizing the...... Personal Knowbase Screen 95 Customizing the...... Index Window 96 Changing the...... Titles Displayed at Startup 98 Sorting Titles...... by Date 98 Customizing the...... Article Window 99 Turning On (or...... Off) Active Links in Articles 99 Not Displaying...... the Save Article Warning Message 100 Starting Personal...... Knowbase with a Data File Opened 101 5 Managing Personal...... Knowbase 101 Compacting...... a Data File 102 Repairing a Damaged...... Data File 102 Repairing the...... Personal Knowbase System 103 Reverting a Data...... File to Version 2 Format 104 Backing Up ...... and Restoring Data Files 105 Moving Personal...... Knowbase to a New Computer 106 Checking for...... Updates to Personal Knowbase 106 Uninstalling ...... Personal Knowbase 107 6 Portable Installations...... of Personal Knowbase 107 Installing on...... a Removable Drive 108 Running from...... a Removable Drive 109 Forcing a Portable...... Installation 110 Part IV Reference 111 1 Display Reference...... 111 Index Window...... 111 Index Column...... 113 Selected...... Column 114 Titles Column...... 114 Preview ...... Pane 116 Controlling...... Which Titles Are Displayed 116 Selecting...... Keywords 118 Modifying...... Keywords from the Index Window 118 Importing...... by Dragging to the Index Window 119 Article Window...... 119 Article Content...... 120 Keywords...... List 122 The Title...... Line 122 Assigning...... Keywords in the Article Window 123 Specifying...... Attachments by Dragging to an Article 124 Reports ...... 124 Contents IV

Index Report...... Window 124 Keyword...... Usage Report Window 125 Keyword...... Cloud Report Window 126 Toolbars ...... 127 Standard...... Toolbar 128 Formatting...... Toolbar 128 Browse Toolbar...... 129 Tools Toolbar...... 129 Status Bar ...... 130 2 Menu Command...... Reference 130 File Menu ...... 130 New Command...... 131 Open Command...... 132 Close Command...... 132 Save File...... Command 132 Compact...... Command 132 Import Command...... 133 Export Command...... 133 Report Command...... 134 Preferences...... Command 134 File Properties...... Command 135 Show Private...... Articles Command 135 Page Setup...... Command 136 Print Command...... 136 Exit Command...... 136 List of the...... most recently accessed files 137 Edit Menu ...... 137 Undo Command...... 138 Undo Article...... Changes Command 138 Cut Command...... 138 Copy Command...... 139 Paste Command...... 139 Paste Special...... Command 140 Delete Command...... 140 Select All...... Command 141 Insert Special...... Character Command 141 Insert Date/Time...... Command 141 Insert Hypertext...... Link Command 141 Check Spelling...... Command 142 Build Query...... Command 142 Run Saved...... Query Command 143 Manage ...... Saved Queries Command 143 Find Command...... 143 Replace ...... Command 144 View Menu ...... 144 Keywords...... Lists Command 145 Sort by Command...... 145 Index Mode...... Command 146 Selected...... Keyword Mode Command 147 Preview ...... Pane Command 147 Status Bar...... Command 148 Standard...... Toolbar Command 148 Formatting...... Toolbar Command 148 Browse Toolbar...... Command 149

IV V Personal Knowbase User's Guide

Tools Toolbar...... Command 149 Format Menu...... 149 Font Command...... 149 Highlight...... Text Command 150 Paragraph...... Command 150 Indent Command...... 150 Unindent...... Command 151 Numbered...... List Command 151 Bulleted ...... List Command 151 Keyword Menu...... 152 Add Keyword...... to Index Command 152 Import Keywords...... List Command 152 Rename...... Keyword Command 153 Merge Keyword...... Command 153 Delete Keyword...... Command 153 Change ...... Keywords for Article Command 154 Create Keyword...... Command 155 Article Menu...... 156 New Article...... Command 156 Close Article...... Command 157 Delete Article...... Command 157 Save Article...... Command 157 Open Attachment...... Command 158 Create Title...... Command 158 Tag Article...... Command 158 Set Date...... to Today Command 159 Article Properties...... Command 159 Clear Tagged...... Title List Command 160 Show All...... Titles Command 160 Show Tagged...... Titles Command 160 Show Articles...... with Attachments Command 160 Window Menu...... 160 Tile Horizontal...... Command 161 Tile Vertical...... Command 161 Cascade...... Command 161 Arrange ...... Icons Command 161 Close All...... Command 162 List of open...... windows 162 Help Menu ...... 162 Contents...... Command 163 Tutorial Command...... 163 Tip of the...... Day Command 163 Bitsmith ...... Software Web Site Command 163 E-mail Bitsmith...... Software Command 164 Check for...... Personal Knowbase Update Command 164 About Personal...... Knowbase Command 164 How to Order...... Command 164 Order Online...... Now Command 164 Enter Registration...... Key Command 164 Pop-up Menus...... 165 3 Dialog Box ...... Reference 165 Add Keywords...... to Index Dialog Box 165 Article Properties...... Dialog Box: Attachment 166 Article Properties...... Dialog Box: General 167 Contents VI

Build Query ...... Dialog Box 168 Column Data...... Import: Delimited Data Dialog Box 170 Column Data...... Import: Fields to Columns Dialog Box 171 Column Data...... Import: Fixed-Position Data Dialog Box 173 Column Data...... Import: Setup Dialog Box 174 Compact Which...... File Dialog Box 175 Convert File...... Dialog Box 175 Copy Format...... To Dialog Box 176 Custom Import:...... Select Fields Dialog Box 176 Custom Import:...... Setup Format Dialog Box 178 Custom Import:...... Specify Article Delimiters Dialog Box 179 Custom Import:...... Specify Field Labels Dialog Box 181 Custom Import:...... Specify Field Lines Dialog Box 182 Custom Import:...... Specify Field Tags Dialog Box 183 Custom Import:...... Specify Fixed Keywords Dialog Box 184 Damaged File...... Report 185 Duplicate Articles...... Dialog Box 186 Duplicate Imported...... Articles Dialog Box 186 Export Dialog...... Box 187 Export Articles...... Setup Dialog Box 188 Export Articles...... to Folder Dialog Box 190 File Properties...... Dialog Box: General 190 File Properties...... Dialog Box: Privacy 192 Find Dialog Box...... 192 Font Dialog ...... Box 194 Hypertext Link...... Properties Dialog Box 194 Import Dialog...... Box 196 Import Keyword...... List Dialog Box 197 Index Report...... Setup Dialog Box 198 Keywords for...... Article Dialog Box 199 Keywords for...... Imported Articles Dialog Box 200 Keyword Usage...... Report Setup Dialog Box 201 Manage Custom...... Formats Dialog Box 202 Manage Queries...... Dialog Box 203 Merge Keyword...... Dialog Box 204 New File Dialog...... Box 204 Open Dialog...... Box 205 Open File at ...... Startup Dialog Box 205 Page Setup Dialog...... Box: Format 206 Page Setup Dialog...... Box: Header/Footer 207 Paragraph Dialog...... Box 208 Print Dialog ...... Box 208 Print Report...... Dialog Box 210 Preferences ...... Dialog Box: Articles 210 Preferences ...... Dialog Box: Display 212 Preferences ...... Dialog Box: Export 213 Preferences ...... Dialog Box: Files 214 Preferences ...... Dialog Box: Import 215 Preferences ...... Dialog Box: Index Window 216 Preferences ...... Dialog Box: Tools 217 Rename Format...... To Dialog Box 218 Rename Keyword...... Dialog Box 218 Rename Query...... Dialog Box 218 Replace Dialog...... Box 219

VI VII Personal Knowbase User's Guide

Save Article ...... Dialog Box 221 Save Compacted...... File As Dialog Box 221 Save Format...... As Dialog Box 222 Save Partially...... Recovered Articles To Dialog Box 222 Save Query Dialog...... Box 223 Save Shared...... Keywords Dialog Box 223 Save Unsaved...... Articles Dialog Box 224 Select Article...... Link Dialog Box 224 Select Attachment...... File Dialog Box 225 Select File Link...... Dialog Box 225 Select Query...... to Run Dialog Box 226 Select Sample...... File Dialog Box 226 Select Special...... Character Dialog Box 227 Shared Keywords...... for Articles Dialog Box 227 4 Keyboard Shortcuts...... 228 Keyboard Options...... for the Index Window 229 Keyboard Options...... for Article Windows 230 5 About Importing...... 232 Results of Importing...... Files 233 Import Plug-Ins...... 234 6 Dates in Personal...... Knowbase 234 7 Glossary of...... Personal Knowbase Terms 235 Part V Customer Support 239 1 Frequently Asked...... Questions (FAQ) 239 Index 243 Getting Started 1

1 Getting Started

Welcome to Personal Knowbase™

If you are not familiar with Personal Knowbase, we recommend that you start with our Overview, 1 which describes what Personal Knowbase is all about.

If you are comfortable with Windows software, the Quick Start 3 provides a quick introduction to Personal Knowbase.

For a detailed introduction to Personal Knowbase's basic features, please follow our full Tutorial. 4

For a detailed discussion of the fundamentals of Personal Knowbase, such as articles and keywords, please see the section on Personal Knowbase Basics. 14

For step-by-step instructions on "how to" do many tasks in Personal Knowbase, see our Procedures 22 section.

You can find answers to frequently asked questions in our FAQ. 239

Finally, for the latest information, support, FAQs, and more, please visit the Bitsmith Software web site.

1.1 Overview of Personal Knowbase

Take control of your information!

Whether you're capturing ideas, archiving email messages, organizing your research notes, or just trying to get rid of all those bits of paper on your desk... Personal Knowbase can help.

What is Personal Knowbase?

Personal Knowbase is the free-form notes organizer that makes it easy to manage the large amount of information that crosses your desktop every day. This software uses a natural way to retrieve notes, using keywords to filter your database for related information quickly.

Build a personal knowledge base of all your notes, messages, and ideas. Get rid of all those bits of paper and little text files that you can never find when you need them.

Manage all your digital information in one place. Reduce paper clutter. Save time managing your information. Find related information easily. 2 Personal Knowbase User's Guide

Why use keywords?

Indexing with keywords sets Personal Knowbase apart from other free-form database software. Remember, it doesn't matter how easily you can store information if you can't find it later.

Software that provides only string searches isn't enough. Even a complete text search on any variation of "motherhood" won't locate a great quote like "The hand that rocks the cradle rules the world." And a search for "opera" returns every reference to "operation" or "operator"! Using keywords, you can find information easily by association.

Software that uses category trees isn't enough. It forces each note into a single category or subcategory. Does a note on books about national parks go under the Books category or the Travel category? The answer is both! Using keywords, you can cross-reference your notes with as many keywords as you need.

Key Features

· Record text information in articles 14 of any size. · Quickly access related information using keywords 15 . · Combine keywords in queries 19 with operators AND, OR, and NOT. · Create hypertext links 17 to Internet addresses, files, and other Knowbase articles. · Link 16 to Internet addresses, including email addresses, with plain text. · Bookmark commonly used articles with tags 15 for instant reference. · Associate file and Internet address attachments 18 with articles. · Password-protect 18 your data files and articles. · Create reports 134 about keywords and articles. · Search 143 for and replace 144 text strings. · Search 143 and sort 145 by the dates when items were last updated. · Spell-check 142 article text. · Import 232 information from text, Cardfile, HTML, RTF, delimited text, and custom formatted text files. · Drag in any block of text 119 to create a new article. · Export 133 information to text, Cardfile, HTML, RTF, and CSV files. · Print 136 articles or lists of articles. · Install Personal Knowbase on a portable drive 107 , such as a USB drive. · No limits on the number or size of notes.

See Also: New Features for Version 3.2 2 Step-by-Step Procedures: How to... 22

1.2 New Features for Version 3.2

What's New for Personal Knowbase Version 3.2?

Major Enhancements:

· Add or delete keywords common to multiple articles 154 at once from the Index Window. · Change the Index Mode 146 to reduce the keywords list in the Index column to only reflect keywords for the currently listed articles. · Display both article content and keywords in the Preview Pane. 147 · Report a visual representation of the frequency of keyword use. 126 · Insert current date and time 141 into your article content. Getting Started 3

Other Enhancements:

· Page Setup is accessible from the Print dialog box. 208 · Spelling Options are accessible from the Tools tab of the Preferences dialog box. 217 · The Build Query command is accessible from a button on the Tools Toolbar. 129 · Gripper bars are added to the Toolbars 127 to make them easier to move. · Pressing the ESC key resets typing to match the beginning of an entry in the Index or Titles column of the Index Window.

1.3 Quick Start

This is a quick introduction to Personal Knowbase for users who are comfortable with Windows software and want to jump right in. See Overview 1 for a summary of features. For a more detailed tutorial, see Step-by-Step Tutorial. 4

Look at a Sample File

· Use the Open button to open the file SAMPLE.KNO. · Double-click on any title in the All Titles column to view an article.

Create Your Own Data File

· Use the New button to create a new file.

· Use the New Article button to create a new article.

Article Window

· Type your information in the Article Title and Content areas. · Double-click on the Keywords list box to assign keywords to the article. · Close the Article Window to save it.

Index Window

· Your new article's title and keywords appear in the Index Window. · Double-click on a keyword in the Index column to see the titles of all articles associated with that keyword.

To learn more about the concepts behind Personal Knowbase, see Personal Knowbase Basics. 14

To learn about other Personal Knowbase functions, check out the detailed "How To" Procedures 22 which step you through various tasks. 4 Personal Knowbase User's Guide

1.4 Tutorial

This tutorial helps you start using the basic features of Personal Knowbase. Once you are comfortable working with data files, articles, and keywords, you can start using Personal Knowbase to organize all your information. See Overview 1 for a summary of features. For a quicker introduction for those who want to jump right in, see Quick Start. 3

You may find it useful to print out this tutorial to refer to while you are learning to use the software. To print the entire tutorial, print pages 4 through 13.

We recommend following the tutorial sections in this order:

1. Viewing an Existing Data File 4 2. Creating a New Data File 6 3. Copying Info from Other Applications 8 4. Working with the Index Window 10 5. Learning More about Personal Knowbase 12

1.4.1 Tutorial: Viewing an Existing Data File

Start by looking at a sample Personal Knowbase data file:

· Click on the Open button on the Toolbar.

The Open dialog box is displayed. The existing Personal Knowbase data files are listed. (If this is the first time you use the Open command, you should be looking at the Personal Knowbase data folder. If not, use the folder listing here to move to that folder now.)

· Double-click on the file name SAMPLE.KNO to open that file.

The Index Window is now the main window on the screen. The keywords from the SAMPLE.KNO data file are displayed in the Index column of this window. The titles of all articles in the data file are displayed in the All Titles column.

Now look at an article from the data file:

· View an article by selecting its title in the Index Window. Double-click on the first title in the list to open it: **Introduction**.

The Article Window is now the main window on the screen. The article **Introduction** is displayed in the Article Window. On the first line of the window, the title and the article date are displayed. The keywords assigned to this article are displayed in the column to the right. The text, or content, of the article occupies the majority of the window.

Any number of Article Windows may be open at once. You can move to any Article Window or the Index Window by clicking on that window or by selecting the title of the window from the Window menu.

· Click on the close box in the upper right corner of the Article Window to close the article.

This returns you to the Index Window. Getting Started 5

You can locate information of interest in the data file by selecting keywords related to your interest. For example, suppose you are looking for information about computers:

· Double-click on the keyword computer in the Index column of the Index Window.

The keyword computer is moved to the Selected column of the window. The Titles column changes to the Selected Titles column and lists only the titles of articles related to computers.

You can view any one of these articles by double-clicking on its title as we did above. Then return to the Index Window.

If a large number of article titles are displayed, you may want to pare down the list further by specifying additional keywords. For example, you may want only information about computers and the Internet:

· Double-click on the keyword Internet in the Index column.

The keyword Internet is added to the Selected column. The Selected Titles column now lists only the titles of articles related to computers and the Internet.

You can view any one of these articles by double-clicking on its title as we did above. Then return to the Index Window.

You can re-expand the list of titles in the Selected Titles column by removing keywords from the Selected keywords list. For example, you may want to see what other information is included about the Internet:

· To remove the keyword computer from the Selected column, double-click on it.

The keyword computer is now returned to the Index. The Selected Titles column now lists all titles of articles related to the Internet.

· To view the titles of all articles in the data file, double-click on the keyword Internet in the Selected column.

The keyword Internet is now returned to the Index. The Titles column now lists All Titles in the data file SAMPLE.KNO.

Internet addresses in article text can be clickable links:

· Once again double-click on the keyword Internet in the Index column of the Index Window.

The keyword Internet returns to the Selected column, and the Selected Titles column lists the titles of related articles.

· Double-click on the title Web Bookmarks in the Selected Titles column.

The Article Window for the article Web Bookmarks is displayed. Notice that it contains a list of Internet addresses (URLs).

· Hold the cursor over one of the Internet addresses.

Notice that the cursor changes to the link cursor. This cursor indicates that you have found a clickable link. Such links are referred to as "active links".

· Double-click on the Internet address "http://www.dictionary.com/" to go to this web site. 6 Personal Knowbase User's Guide

If you don't want to connect to the Internet at this time, don't click on the link. If you click on the link, your default web browser opens and accesses the site Dictionary.com.

· Back in Personal Knowbase, click on the window's close box to close the article.

You return to the Index Window.

Article text can contain hypertext links:

· Double-click on the title Computer Terms Glossary in the Selected Titles column.

The Article Window for the article Computer Terms Glossary is displayed. In this article, at the end of the definition of the term "ASCII", note the green, underlined text which says "ASCII / ANSI Character Codes". This is a hypertext link. Hypertext links can link to files, URLs, or other Knowbase articles.

· Double-click on the green, underlined text to open the Knowbase article which this hypertext link points to.

The Article Window for the article ASCII / ANSI Character Codes is displayed.

· Click on the windows' close boxes to close the 2 open articles and return to the Index Window.

Browse the sample file. This file provides examples of Personal Knowbase articles. Proceed to the next step in the tutorial to create a new data file.

1.4.2 Tutorial: Creating a New Data File

You will want to create your own data files for storing your information. Create an empty data file called GENERAL.KNO:

· Click on the New button on the Toolbar.

The New File dialog box is displayed. The existing Personal Knowbase files are listed.

· If you would like to place your data file in a folder other than the Personal Knowbase data folder, use the Save In menu to select the folder you want.

· In the File Name edit box, type GENERAL (or any other name that you prefer). Click on the Save button.

The Index Window is now the main window on the screen. All three columns are empty, since the data file does not yet have any articles or keywords.

Now put an article in the data file:

· Click on the New Article button on the Toolbar.

A blank Article Window is now displayed. The cursor is in the title box.

· Type "To-Do List" in the title box as a title for the article. Getting Started 7

Note that the date edit box displays today's date. You may change this date if you wish.

· Click on the large content (or text) area of the Article Window.

· In the content area, type a few to-do items such as: Call John Smith Evaluate Personal Knowbase software Get seminar info

· Double-click inside the Keywords list box on the right side of the window.

The Keywords For Article dialog box is displayed. This window is for assigning keywords to the article. Since no keywords are in the data file yet, the keyword lists are blank.

· In the New Keyword edit box, type "to-do" and press the Enter key.

The keyword to-do is added to the list of keywords assigned to this article.

· Click on the OK button to exit the dialog box.

We return to the Article Window. The keyword to-do has been added to the keyword list on the right side of the window.

· Click on the window's close box to close and save the article.

This returns you to the Index Window. The keyword to-do is now displayed in the Index column of the window. The article title "To-Do List" is shown in the All Titles column. Today's date, shown alongside the title, is the date when the article was created.

Sometimes you need to modify an existing article. For example, let's add some formatting to the text in the to-do list we just created:

· To open the article, double-click on the title "To-Do List" in the All Titles column of the Index Window.

The Article Window containing our To-Do List is displayed.

· Select all 3 lines of text by dragging the mouse cursor across the text.

· Click on the Numbered List button on the Formatting Toolbar to number the 3 lines.

· Now select just the first to-do item by dragging the mouse cursor across the text.

· Click on the Text Color button on the Formatting Toolbar and click on the red color swatch from the drop-down colors menu.

The selected text turns red: 1. Call John Smith 2. Evaluate Personal Knowbase software 3. Get seminar info

· Click on the window's close box to close the article.

This time, because you modified an existing article, Personal Knowbase asks you to verify that you want to save the article changes. 8 Personal Knowbase User's Guide

· Select the Yes button to save the article changes.

Create a second article in the same way that you created the "To-Do List" article. Give it the title "Web Addresses" and start a list of Web addresses that you want to check out. Give it the keyword Web. Close the article to save it and return to the Index Window.

Back in the Index Window, both of your articles are now displayed in the All Titles column. Let's look at how we can control which article titles are displayed in the Titles column. First, let's display only the titles of articles which are assigned to a specific keyword:

· Double-click on the keyword to-do in the Index column.

The keyword to-do moves to the Selected column. The Titles column header is now Selected Titles, and only the titles of articles assigned to the keyword to-do are displayed.

· Double-click on the keyword to-do to return it to the Index column and restore All Titles to the Titles list.

Articles can be marked for easy access by tagging them:

· Click once on the article title "Web Addresses" to highlight it.

· Click on the Tag Article Toolbar button to tag this article.

· Click on the Show Tagged Titles Toolbar button.

Now the Titles column header changes to Tagged Titles, and only titles of tagged articles are displayed. At this time, only "Web Addresses" should be displayed.

· To display the titles of all articles in the data file, click on the Show All Titles Toolbar button.

Proceed to the next step in the tutorial to explore bringing information into Personal Knowbase from other programs.

1.4.3 Tutorial: Copying Info from Other Applications

It is common to bring information into Personal Knowbase from other Windows software programs, either by copying or importing the data. Let's copy some information from the Internet:

· Open your Internet browser application.

If you prefer not to connect to the Internet at this time, instead open a file in your word processor or another program that uses text.

· Go to your favorite news web site or any web site which uses a lot of text.

If you can't think of a web site you want to visit, come to Bitsmith Software's site by entering "www.bitsmithsoft.com" as the Address or Location.

· Select a news article or a few paragraphs of text from the browser window. Getting Started 9

To select the text, simply drag your mouse cursor across the text you want.

· Copy the text to the Windows clipboard by pressing Ctrl-C.

Now put the text into your data file:

· Back in Personal Knowbase, make sure that you have opened the data file GENERAL.KNO which we created in the previous step of the tutorial.

If GENERAL.KNO is not open, use the File menu to open the file. The four most recently opened files are listed at the bottom of the File menu. Simply click on "GENERAL.KNO" to open it.

· To create a new empty article, click on the New Article button on the Toolbar.

· Type any title into the title box.

You might call the article "News copied from the Internet". Press Enter to finish the title. Notice that the cursor automatically moves to the article content area when you press Enter.

· Press Ctrl-V to paste the information that you copied to the clipboard.

The text that you copied from your browser window is now the text of the new article.

Create a couple keywords so you can find this article again later:

· Double-click on the Keywords list box on the right side of the window.

The Keywords For Article dialog box is displayed.

· In the New Keyword edit box, type "web" and press the Enter key.

The keyword Web, which you created for this data file in the previous step of the tutorial, is added to the list of keywords assigned to this article.

· Click on the OK button to exit the dialog box.

We return to the Article Window. The keyword Web has been added to the keyword list on the right side of the window.

· Find a word within the article text which would make a good keyword.

For example, if you copied some information from Bitsmith Software's web site, you might select the word "software".

· Select the word in the article content area.

To select a single word, simply double-click on it.

· From the Keyword menu, select the Create Keyword command.

The selected word is added to the keyword list for this article.

· Click on the window's close box to close and save the article. 10 Personal Knowbase User's Guide

Now let's import a simple text file:

· From the File menu, select the Import command.

The Import dialog box is displayed.

· Make sure that File of Type is set to "Text Files (*.txt)".

All files in the current folder with the extension TXT are listed.

· Using the Look in drop-down menu, select the top level folder of the C: drive.

If there are no text (TXT) files in this folder, select the Windows folder from the file list to go down one level to C:\Windows.

· Choose one of the text files listed and double-click on the file name.

The Keywords For Imported Articles dialog box is displayed. This window is for assigning keywords to the article that you are creating from this text file.

· In the New Keyword edit box, type a keyword for this article and press the Enter key.

For example, if you want to be able to find all imported articles later, you might add the keyword "imported text file". The keyword is added to the list of keywords assigned to this article. You can assign an existing keyword to the imported article by double-clicking on a keyword in the Available Keywords column.

· Click on the OK button to exit the dialog box.

The Article Window for the imported article is displayed. The text from the file is the article content. The file's name is shown in the title box. You can edit the title to something more descriptive if you want.

· Click on the window's close box to close and save the article.

Back in the Index Window, the titles of your new articles appear in the titles column.

Proceed to the next step in the tutorial to learn more about the Index Window.

1.4.4 Tutorial: Working with the Index Window

Let's look at some useful features of the Index Window. First, turn on the optional Preview Pane:

· Open the data file SAMPLE.KNO.

If SAMPLE.KNO is not open, use the File menu to open the file. The four most recently opened files are listed at the bottom of the File menu. Simply click on "SAMPLE.KNO" to open it.

· From the View menu, select the Preview Pane command. From the Preview Pane's cascading menu, select the Show Article Content option.

A new pane appears below the Titles column. This pane allows you to preview articles without leaving the Index Window. Getting Started 11

· Click once on the first article title in the Titles column to highlight it.

The Preview Pane displays the text of this article. Note that you cannot edit the article from this pane, however, you can copy text from the pane or click on Internet addresses. To edit the article, you must open it in an Article Window.

· Make sure the cursor is in the Titles column by clicking again on the first article title.

· Press the down-arrow key on your keyboard to move the highlight to the next article title in the list.

The text in the Preview Pane changes to the text of the next article.

· Continue pressing the down-arrow several times.

Watch the text in the Preview Pane change for each article. This is a useful way to browse through a number of listed articles looking for something specific.

· From the View menu, select the Preview Pane command and again select Show Article Content from the cascading menu.

This turns off the Preview Pane, giving you more room to view article titles in the Titles column.

You can sort the article titles in the Index Window by title or by date, ascending or descending:

· From the View menu, select the Sort by command.

A cascading menu appears with four sorting options.

· From the cascading menu, select the Dates Descending option.

The order of the titles in the Titles column changes, so that the most recent article is listed first, and the oldest article is last. This can be a useful way to find your most recent articles quickly.

You can also sort by clicking on the column headers in the Index Window:

· Click on the header of the Titles column.

The titles in the Titles column are now again sorted alphabetically.

You can specify whether the articles listed in the Titles column should be those associated with all or any of the keywords in the Selected column. Currently, the articles listed are associated with all the Selected keywords. This is indicated by the word (AND) which appears at the top of the Selected column.

· From the Index column, move the keyword computer to the Selected column.

TIP: When the cursor is in the Index list, typing the first few letters of a keyword moves the cursor to the keyword. You can then simply press Enter to move the keyword. For example, typing "com" into the Index column takes you to the keyword computer, the first keyword starting with "com".

· Move the keyword Internet to the Selected column.

The keywords computer and Internet are in the Selected column of the window. The 12 Personal Knowbase User's Guide

Titles column now lists only the titles of articles related to computers AND the Internet.

· From the View menu, select the Selected Keyword Mode command.

A cascading menu appears with the options AND and OR. AND is currently checked.

· From the cascading menu, select the OR option.

The indicator at the top of the Selected column is now (OR), specifying that the articles listed are associated with any of the Selected keywords. Several more titles are now listed in the Titles column. These are the articles in the file which are related to computers OR the Internet.

· To change the mode back to AND, select the Selected Keyword Mode command from the View menu and select AND from the cascading menu.

Finally, familiarize yourself with some of the customizable options available in Personal Knowbase:

· From the File menu, select the Preferences command.

The Preferences dialog box is displayed. Click on each of the tabs across the top of the dialog box to see the types of options which are available.

· For more information about the currently shown options, select the Help button at the bottom of the dialog box.

· Click on the Cancel button to leave the dialog box without making any changes to the Preferences. If you want to save some changes you've made, click on the OK button.

Proceed to the next step for some suggestions for learning more about Personal Knowbase.

1.4.5 Tutorial: Learning More about Personal Knowbase

This tutorial has given you an overview of the basic features of Personal Knowbase. After you finish the tutorial, we suggest looking at some of the following information.

Concepts behind Personal Knowbase

Learn more about the fundamentals of Personal Knowbase: About Articles: Your Basic Units of Information 14 About Keywords and the Index 15 About Tags and Tagging Articles 15 About Active Links in Article Windows 16

For more topics about fundamentals, see Personal Knowbase Basics. 14

The Main Windows

For more about the Index Window, see Index Window. 111 For more about the Article Window, see Article Window. 119

Step-by-Step Procedures Get