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NoteFiler Tips

NOTE: These tips were written for NoteFiler™ Pro 1.0, but most are also applicable the Lite version.

Although we have no reason to doubt the accuracy of these tips, they have not been tested by SKY Software and it is recommended that you try these tips on a test database prior to using them on your regular database. It is also recommended that you backup your database before trying something new.

Available Tips:

Demoting multiple records
Working with formatted text

Demoting multiple records

Sometimes you will have established a compound heading in the form of a phrase, and then you find you need to split it into a heading plus subheading. How do you do this easily if you have already attached a number of locators to the heading?

Let's say you have established the heading "goals at work" and attached half a dozen page references. Now you find that "goals" have cropped up in a different context, so you want to change your earlier entries to the heading "goals" with the subheading "at work".

  1. Create a group: Highlight one instance of the heading and create a group by clicking the "Grouped" speedbar button, pressing Shift+F6, or choosing" View > Grouped". (Actually, you can omit this step, but I like to include it so that I can check that what I expect to happen is what actually happens.)
  2. In one of the records insert a comma after "goals".
  3. Propagate the change: Press Ctrl+Alt+Enter, so that all the records read "goals, at work"
  4. Select all the records: If you have grouped them, press Ctrl+Insert or choose Edit > Select All; if you have not grouped them, press Ctrl+Space or choose Edit > Select Record.
  5. Demote: Click the "Demote" speedbar button, press Ctrl+F6, or choose Edit > Demote.
  6. When the "Select field" box pops up, choose "Main" and click OK.
  7. Ungroup the records: If you grouped the records, ungroup them by returning to the view you were working in before.

Working with formatted text

In version 6, you apply formatting to individual strings of characters text in the same way as in version 5.1

However, there are a couple of changes in version 6:

By default, text in the data entry grid is displayed as formatted, not surrounded by formatting codes as in version 5.1.

If the formatting runs to the end of the cell, you don't have to switch off the formatting; SKY Index will do that for you automatically when you move to another cell.

This is a great improvement over the codes that used to clutter up the data entry grid in version 5.1. Now, what you see is what you get.

However, although you can't see the formatting codes, they are still there. You can verify this by typing in some text together with the actual codes -- try typing "/i1This text is in italics/i0" and then press the return key. This creates a challenge when you are using AutoComplete (this used to be called AutoEntry in version 5.1); and also when you are using the Find/Replace dialogue. In both of these cases you must type the formatting codes at the beginning of the text.

AutoComplete

For example, let's say you are indexing a book on the history of cinema, where there are going to be a lot of names of films in italics. You know you have already typed in "Battleship Potemkin" in italics, and you can't face typing it again, so you want AutoComplete to do it for you. For AutoComplete to complete your typing you must begin by typing "/i1Battleship ...". (You can set up a macro to insert "/i1"). To check this out, type a couple of headings in italics or bold and then look for them in the AutoComplete Manager.

Find/Replace

Similarly, let's say you want to find all records that contain a cell at any level that begins with the word "Battleship" in italics. In the Find/Replace dialogue box's Find What textbox you would type: </i1Battleship. Check it out by typing some text in bold, italics, or underlined, highlight it and press Ctrl+F -- the highlighted text appears in the Find What textbox together with its codes. Neither the Find What textbox nor the Replace With textbox allows you to insert formatted text in the same way as the data entry grid. Instead, you can insert formatted text by typing the formatting codes either side of it. Maybe this sounds like a bit of a hassle, but it actually has an enormous benefit: It means that you can find and/or replace the formatting itself without having to specify text. Let's say you need to change all italic page references to bold -- in the Find What textbox you would type /i, and in the Replace With textbox you would type /b, and choose the Page field.

Hide and Ignore text

Although the methods for invoking Hide and Ignore text remain the same as in version 5.1, the codes that version 6 inserts are different. You will notice that under default conditions, Hidden text is displayed in the data entry grid as blue, and Ignored text is displayed in green. However, the codes that SKY Index inserts in the background are /z1 and /z0 either side of Hidden text, and /y1 and /y0 either side of Ignored text. Check it out: code some text as Hidden or Ignored, highlight it and press Ctrl+F. Thus, if you are using AutoComplete for the name McDonald, for example, and you know that you have "hidden" an "a" between the M and the c, you would need to begin typing: M/z1a/z0cDonald.

Reveal codes

You can switch on the display of formatting codes: Choose Options > Program Options, click the Data Entry tab, and place a checkmark next to Reveal Codes. For most of the time it is a great advantage to have the codes suppressed. But I have occasionally found it useful to "reveal" them when I have totally stuffed up a "Hide/Ignored" combination and need to sort it out; or imported an index from someone else's TXT file and need to fix up a formatting mess they created; or I am using a monochrome monitor and have to be able to distinguish Hidden and Ignored text.