OVERVIEW SLIDEMANAGER was designed primarily for visual artists and photographers. Visual artists make photographic slides of their work for permanent records and for submission to galleries and competitions. Photographers produce slides as the final product of their work, or take slides of prints for submission purposes. The SLIDEMANAGER program provides a method of uniquely numbering the slides, for storing information as to the date the work was created, the medium (20 catagories), the subject (12 catagories), height and width of the work, the title, and key words (or description) for easy retrieval. Histories of the slide (when and where the work was submitted, shown, sold, given, or has received an award) may be entered either at the time of entering the slide information or any other time. If the medium is photographic, an entry of photo-facts may be made; these include the type of camera, lens, filter, lights, film, and developing and printing information. Provision for retrieval of the stored information is extensive. Slides may be recalled by number, keywords, title, subject, media, or year. If the medium is photographic, the photo-facts are recalled with the slide. Histories may be recalled by the type (submissions, shows, sales, gifts, awards) or by slide number or key words occurring in the place submitted or in the name of the competition. As each item is recalled to the screen, an option for print-out of that item is given. In addition, a print-out menu allows for mass printout of all slides/photo-facts, and histories for each recall classification, without corresponding on-screen display. SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS SLIDEMANAGER is supplied as a compiled program intended to run on machines compatible with IBM PCs, XTs, or ATs. The program is less than 130 Kbytes and uses very little memory space for running purposes. Either a monochrome or color monitor may be used, and any printer may be used that runs under PCDOS or MSDOS. DISK SPACE CONSIDERATIONS The program file is named SLIDEMGR.EXE and the program builds four data files: SLIDEMGR.DAT, HISTMGR.DAT, PHOTOMGR.DAT, and SLIDEMGR.IDX. The first three files are "Random" files, with a respective length of 136, 188, and 374 bytes. The .IDX file is a B-plus Tree index file with a record length of 256 bytes; however, the overall length of this file will vary greatly depending on the number of key words included for recall of each slide. As an example, storage of 175 slides with no histories, each slide having an "average" number of key words in the description, results in an IDX file size of 44800 bytes. Since histories require much less index storage than do slides, and photo-facts even less, it can be estimated that the IDX file would not exceed 2 1/2 times the size of the SLIDEMGR.DAT file. Although the program will certainly work best with a hard disk, non-photographers or those with a limited number of slides to file, may find that the space afforded by a single floppy disk is sufficient. In any event, the program files all of the information on the active disk; it is therefore advisable to load the program into "working memory" and then replace the disk with a formatted non-system floppy to afford maximum file storage space. For those with a hard disk, the program may be stored in a directory with a name of your choice, and will file the data there. No unusual printer sequences are used, nor are any graphics characters sent to the printer. Presumably any dot matrix or daisy wheel or any other type of printer that will operate under the PCDOS or MSDOS system will give satisfactory printed output. STARTING THE PROGRAM Copy the SLIDEMGR.EXE file to whatever disk you may want to use, using the DOS COPY command. Put it into any directory you want to put it in. Then make that the active directory and type SLIDEMGR and hit ENTER. The "factory disk" also contains an ASCII file named SLIDEMAN.TXT which is the manual for this program. It may be read on the screen with the DOS TYPE command, or printed out on your printer (see your DOS manual for details). The program uses multiple menus, and they are quite self- explanatory. However, the manual does provide a lot of helpful hints as to use of key words, and suggestions as to how to include information on your slides or histories that may be of importance to you but for which no specific entry line is provided by the program designer. WHAT YOU GET IN RETURN FOR YOUR REGISTRATION Every time you run the program, you will be reminded that this is a SHAREWARE program and that you are expected to register it if you use it beyond a reasonable evaluation period. Cost of registration is $49.95 plus $5.00 for shipping. Upon registration you will be sent (1) the latest version of the program, (2) any utility programs that have been developed for it, and (3) a copy of the manual, including information on any enhancements. AS AN ADDED INDUCEMENT TO REGISTER, if you request customization of the subjects and/or media portion of the slide-entry layout, to better satisfy your needs as an artist, your registered program will contain that customization (providing, of course, that it fits within the number-of-items and line-length constraints imposed by the program). REGISTER AND MAIL YOUR CHECKS AND/OR COMMENTS TO EPPSTEIN SOFTWARE 2519 East Allen Road Tucson, Arizona 85716 Phone 602-881-0131 USING THE PROGRAM After reading the SHAREWARE notice, hit any key to go to the Main Menu. Entry to every section of the program is made by responding to the Main Menu prompt. Erroneous entries to the prompt of any menu will result in a beep. Hitting the key in any part of the program (excepting the Main Menu) will return you to an earlier menu. To quit the program, return to the Main Menu and enter a Q to the prompt. Remember that the key is a totally safe key: if you are entering data and hit you will be given a fresh layout or will be returned to the last previous menu. NO FILING IS EVER DONE WHEN YOU HIT . This feature prevents the filing erroneous data, whether you are in a data entry portion of the program or at the option line of the data entry layout. The Main Menu appears below, and a full description of each of the Main Menu options follows this page. (Use Shift/PrtSc to put copy of Main Menu here) "ENTER NEW SLIDES" SECTION Until the information for a slide has been entered, the program cannot generate a slide number and no history or photo- facts can be entered for the slide. On the page following this section, a slide layout is shown in the manner it first appears on the screen, and in its completed form. The cursor will be positioned for entry of the Date created, and since this is a required entry, you can only leave this data entry point by correct completion or by . All data on the slide layout is required EXCEPT height and width; those two things are optional. The length of the reverse video field at the cursor position will indicate the maximum length of each entry. The date required is the month and the year; there is no provision for entry of the day of the month on this particular layout. This date refers to the date (month and year) of the creation of the art work, in the case of media other than photographic slides. If the media is a photographic slide then of course the date the slide was taken would also be the date of creation of the art work. HELPFUL HINT: If the day of the month is important to you, include it, or the full day/month/year date, as a keyword or in the title. Also, if titles really aren't important to you, type in only a single character or short word, to satisfy the requirement that you can't leave that line blank. Titles are stored in the key index and can be up to 50 characters long; the index file, however, stores only the number of letters you actually enter. A full title would take up 50 bytes of index file space but a single character will only take up one byte. Of course, sometimes a title is really important for you to recall the content of an art work. In other instances the title is changed from time to time, depending on where the slide is eventually submitted. Just remember, short titles save index file space. Note that keywords must be separated by commas. This permits the filing of more than a single word as a keyword; for example Great Britain or Blue Vase. HELPFUL HINT: Avoid plural words ending in S as key words. A key word search requires the EXACT key word; a search for the key word "BOYS" will not find "BOY". As will be explained in detail in the section of the manual entitled RECALL SLIDES, a slower method of key word search will find any combination of letters occurring in either the entire string of key words, or in the title of the slide. ANOTHER HELPFUL HINT: Don't use a word that is also a listed subject, or a listed media, as a key word; that just wastes space because a separate recall is provided for subject and media. Since you can recall directly by subject and media you don't need them as key words. When you have entered all of the required data, the slide number is formed by the program and printed in the proper portion of the layout. The number is a combination of the year, a unique number starting with 1 (padded to five digits), and two letters which represent the alphabetical equivalent of the subject number and the media number. Once you have entered the necessary information for the slide number to be formed, you can edit any entry with the arrow keys on your keyboard. On some keyboards the NumLock must be off, in order to use the arrow keys. Changing the information as to year created, subject or media, will cause a corresponding change to the slide number. After all corrections are made, the cursor may be placed on the option line by use of the down arrow key, the Home key, or the PgDn key. The option line of the slide layout gives you four options: (F)ile, (A)dd History/File, (P)rint/File, (ESC) to Menu, don't file Entering F will file all of the information in the SLIDEMGR.DAT file, and the date, media, subject and key words in the index file. What happens next depends on the media you chose. If the media is not photographic, then you will be presented with a fresh slide layout after the filing is complete. If the media is photographic, you will be presented with the photo-Facts layout. Entry of photo-facts is optional; it need not be done at the time of slide entry, or at all. If you are presented with the photo- facts layout and do not wish to enter data, simply hit . Otherwise, complete all or a portion of the information requested; there are no required answers to the photo-fact entry lines. Furthermore, you can add information to a previously filed, partially completed photo-fact at any time. Entering A will permit you to add one or more histories for the slide you just entered, after the program files the slide information. If the media is not photographic, immediately after filing takes place the Enter History Menu will be presented. If the media is photographic, the photo-fact layout will first be presented and, after completion of that (or abandonment by ), the Enter History Menu will be presented. Entering P will cause a filing of the slide information, and then a print-out of that information on your printer (assuming you have it turned on). After the print-out, the slide layout will remain, and you may again choose among all four of the options. Even though there is a separate Print-out Menu, it is useful to print out each slide it so that you have a running printed inventory of the slide you have entered. Entering will abandon the data WITHOUT FILING IT, and will return you to the Main Menu. (Use Shift/PrtSc to put copy of Slide layout on next page) "ENTER SUBMISSIONS/SHOWS/SALES/GIFTS/AWARDS" SECTION This section may be entered directly from the Main Menu, or entered as a result of choosing the option (A)dd History/File from the option line of the slide layout. In either case, the History Entry Menu will be presented as it appears below. (Use Shift/PrtSc to put copy of History Entry Menu here) Entering A will cause the submissions layout to appear. If the Enter History section was entered from the option line of the slide layout, then the slide number of the slide just entered will appear in the proper position on the top line. The title of the slide will also appear above the "Sent to" data entry line. The cursor will be positioned for entry of the "Sent to" data. If this section was entered from the Main Menu, the cursor will be positioned to receive data as to the slide number. Only the numeric portion of a slide number must be entered, and leading zeros may be omitted. If no slide has ever been filed for the number entered as the slide number, an error message appears in the option box of the history layout and the erroneous slide number is rejected. If you can't remember the correct number of the slide for which you want to enter a history, hit to return to the Main Menu; from there you can choose a Recall option, see the slides that are filed, and get a valid slide number. Responses are required as to Sent to, Street Address, City State, and Date submitted. Other entries are optional. HELPFUL HINT: The Name of competition/comment line is quite useful for other notations as well, and will be scanned for key word search if you use that method of recall. The option line of the submissions layout is a little different if you enter this section from the Main Menu, than the option line presented if entry is from the slide layout option line. The page following this section of the manual shows the option entry line as it would appear if entry to the History Entry section were from the Main Menu. The options are: (F)ile/Menu, (N)ext submission/File, (R)epeat/File, (ESC) don't file Entering F causes filing, and return to the History Entry Menu. At that menu, you may choose to file a different type of history (show, sale, etc) or to return to the Main Menu. Entering N causes filing, and gives a fresh submissions layout. Entering R causes filing, and a repeat of the submissions layout that contains all of the data you just entered, excepting for the slide number. You may then enter a new slide number and again choose an option. The purpose of the R option is to save repetitive data entry when multiple slides are submitted to the same place, or shown in the same show. Use of this feature permits very fast filing of identical histories for different slide numbers. Entering returns you to the History Entry Menu, without filing. When entry to the History Entry section is from the option line of the slide layout, the option line of the history entry layout is: (F)ile, (N)ext slide/File, (ESC) to Menu Entering F causes filing and a new History Entry Menu so that additional types of history may be entered for this slide. Entering N causes filing and a return to a new slide layout. Entering (ESC) brings the History Entry Menu without filing. If, instead of choosing SLIDES SUBMITTED from the History Entry Menu, you chose B) SHOWS/PLACES EXHIBITED, C) SALES, D) GIFTS OR E) AWARDS, then the layout for your choice would appear for data entry. Those layouts are essentially the same as the submissions layout excepting for certain wording. For example, the line "Sent to" of the submissions layout is replace by "Shown at" in the show layout, "Sold to" in the sales layout, and "Given to" in the awards layout. The option line in the sales, gifts and awards layout does not permit the (R)epeat/file option. Other than that, the procedure for completion of data is exactly the same in all history entry layouts. "ENTER PHOTO INFORMATION" SECTION This section may be entered from the Main Menu, or will be entered automatically after entry of a slide having a photographic media. If entry is the result of filing a slide with a photographic media, and the option chosen at the slide layout option line was (A)dd History/File, the photo-fact layout will appear BEFORE the History Entry Menu is presented. In that case, completion and filing of the photo-fact data (or abandonment or skipping the layout by hitting ) will bring up the History Entry Menu. All data entry on the photo-fact layout is optional. The entire layout may be skipped by hitting . If this section was reached from the Main Menu, you will have to enter a slide number before you can enter any other information. Only the numeric portion of the slide number need be entered, and leading zeros may be omitted. Invalid slide numbers are those numbers for which no slide has yet been entered, or a for a slide which has been entered but which is not for a photographic media. In either case the data is refused and an advisory message appears, and the cursor positions for a correct entry. The option line will read: (F)ile/next PhotoFacts, (ESC) return to Menu/don't file If this section was reached as a result of filing as slide for a photographic media, the slide number will already have been entered and the cursor will position at the "Camera" data entry line. The arrow keys will move the cursor between data entry points but will not allow alteration of the slide number. The option line will read: (F)ile, (ESC) don't file Note that if this section was reached from the Main Menu, the option (F)ile/next PhotoFacts allows you to enter multiple photo-fact entries for multiple slide numbers, at one work session. However, if entry to this section was a result of filing a slide with a photographic media, (F)ile does the filing, but returns you to either the slide entry layout for the next slide, or brings up the History Entry Menu if the option choice from the slide entry option line was (A)dd History/File. UNLIKE A SLIDE ENTRY THAT HAS BEEN FILED, OR A HISTORY ENTRY THAT HAS BEEN FILED, A PHOTO-FACT ENTRY MAY BE ADDED TO, CORRECTED, OR EDITED IN ANY MANNER EVEN AFTER IT HAS BEEN FILED. The reason for the exception is that none of the data entries of the photo-fact layout are keys in the index file, and therefore there is no problem as to deletion of changed keys (as there is as to slide and history entries). To edit a photo-fact filed entry, enter the section from the main menu and then enter a slide number for which the photo-fact entry has already been made. The layout will appear with the previously filed data correctly positioned, and the arrow keys will allow changes and then refiling. A fresh photo-fact layout, and a completed layout, appear on the page following this section of the Manual. Note the difference in the option lines, depending on the entry point to the photo-fact section. (Use Shift/PrtSc to make copies as mentioned above) "RECALL SLIDES (OPTIONAL PRINT-OUT" SECTION This section is reached from the Main Menu, and when it is selected the Slide Recall/Print Menu is displayed. This menu appears below: (Use Shift/PrtSc to put copy of Slide Recall/Print Menu here) Because of screen space considerations the display of slides in the Recall section is not in the form of the original slide entry data. Regardless of the choice from this menu, the slides appear on the screen one at a time, and after each appearance the choice is given for (N)ext slide, (P)rint the slide, or to the menu. In any instance where there are no slides filed, none filed for the specific year/subject/media/key word/slide number/title, you will be so advised and asked to enter something different. If the slide recalled has had a photo-fact entered for it, then the photo-fact will be displayed on the screen following the display of the slide and the option line will appear following the photo-fact. If (P)rint the slide is chosen, the photo-fact will be printed out following the print-out of the slide. The menu choices have the following effects: Entering A will display, one at a time, all slide entries that have been filed, beginning with the most recent year. Entering B will do the same, beginning with the oldest year. Entering C will bring up a question line so that you may enter the year. The entry may either be four digits (eg. 1987) or two digits (eg. 87). Entering D will bring up a listing of all of the subjects, at the left of the menu. A question line will request entry of the number of the subject you want to recall. Entering E will cause a similar listing of all media, and present the question line. Entering F will bring a question line for the key word for which you want to search. Since this search is an index key search, the key word must match the key in the file exactly, if a match is to be found. If a match is found, the slide will be displayed on the screen. There may be many slides with the same key word and if so, you can see them all by continuing to hit (N)ext slide. Entering G will bring a question line for the keyord or any sequence of letters for which you want to search. This type of search looks for the occurrence of the letter sequence, first in the entire key word string and then the entire title line for every slide in the file, retrieving the slide if a match is found. Because of the nature of the search, it is slow compared to the key word index search. On an AT, it took approximately one minute to search 1000 slides. Obviously it will take longer on a PC or XT. Entering H will bring a question line for the slide number; if the search is unsuccessful a different number will be requested. Entering I will bring a question line for the title; this is an index key search, so your entry must be the EXACT title, no more, no less. "HISTORY RECALL/PRINT" SECTION This section is entered from the Main Menu. Selection of this main menu choice results in the display of the History Recall/Print Menu; this menu appears below: (Use Shift/PrtSc to put copy of History Recall/Print Menu here) Display of recalled histories is similar to the display of recalled slides. With each history recalled, the slide number of the slide, the title line, the media and the subject are also recalled. An option of (N)ext History, (P)rint the history, and to menu is always given. The choices from this menu have the following effects: Entering A will permit recall of all histories, of every kind, for a specific slide number. A question line will appear for the entry of the slide number. Entering B will cause a recall of all histories of every kind, filed for all slides. Entering C will cause a recall of all histories of every kind for a specific year. Remember: the year of a history is not necessarily the year of a slide! The year of a history refers to the year the submission/show/sale/gift/award actually occurred. Entering D will cause a recall submissions only, either for all slides filed or for a given year. The year refers to the year of the submission, not the year of the slide. When this type of recall is chosen, a question line appears asking whether you want (A)ll or a specific year (yy). Entering E will cause a recall of submissions only, with a specific key word or letter sequence occurring in the place submitted to, or the competition. This is not a key word index search and therefore is comparatively slow. Entering F will cause a recall of shows only, either for all slides filed or for a given year. The year refers to the year of the show, not the year of the slide. When this type of recall is chosen, a question line appears asking whether you want (A)ll or a specific year (yy). Entering G will cause a recall of shows only, with a specific key word or letter sequence occurring in the place of the show or the show name. This is not a key word index search and therefore is comparatively slow. Entering H, I, or J will cause a recall of sales, gifts, or awards, respectively; you may recall all that have been filed for all slides, or all for a specific year. The year refers to the year of the sale, gift or award, not the year of the slide. When this type of recall is chosen, a question line appears asking whether you want (A)ll or a specific year (yy). "PRINT-OUT SLIDES" SECTION "PRINT-OUT HISTORIES" SECTION The menus and question lines of this section are identical to those of the RECALL SLIDES and RECALL HISTORIES sections. The effect of choosing any option is a print-out of the chosen slides or histories, on a printer. There is no screen display of the slides or histories being printed. The printer will print the maximum number of slides (and photo-facts if there are any for the slides), or the maximum number of histories, on a page; when there is insufficient space for the next slide or photo-fact, the printer will form-feed to the next page. Printing of histories pages in the same manner. Because of the different sizes of printer buffers, there is no practical way to interrupt printing while it is in process excepting turning off the printer. "UTILITY PROGRAMS" SECTION No utility programs are provided with this version of SLIDEMANAGER. Editing programs and re-indexing programs are planned for future development. When you register your program you will receive the most recent version of SLIDEMANAGER including any utility programs that have been developed. COMMENTS ARE REQUESTED Regardless of whether you register your program, your comments and suggestions for program enhancement are invited. It is our intention to further develop this program and other programs so as to best serve the needs of those who use or can use such programs; we can only learn that from you, the user or potential user.