
                              Parents Ver. 2.31
                                by NickleWare
                                
                                

                                INTRODUCTION

     PARENTS is an application that was designed to help make collecting and 
organizing your genealogy easier.  With the help of PARENTS, you will be able
to more easily gather, store, and view information about all of your 
ancestors as well as your children and your children's children. 
     PARENTS allows you to enter and store vital information such as names, 
birth, marriage, death dates and places and more.  All of this information 
can then be easily organized and related together to form your family tree.  
You will also be able to print the detailed information  about any one of 
your ancestors as well as print your immediate tree. 

                                REGISTRATION

     PARENTS is not public domain, nor is it free software.  You are granted 
a limited license to use this product on a trial basis.  You are also 
granted a license to copy PARENTS, along with the documentation, for the 
trial use by other users.  PARENTS has not been intentionally crippled or 
limited in its functionality in any way.  If you wish to continue using the 
product, you must send $25 to: 

                                 NickleWare
                                P.O. Box 393
                            Orem, UT.  84059  USA

If you would like an original copy or an update to the latest release of the 
software, please add $5 for shipping and handling.
     We encourage you to copy PARENTS and share it with anyone who might be 
interested in tracking down their roots and learning where they came from. 

                               GETTING STARTED

     REQUIREMENTS -
          Microsoft Windows 3.0 or higher
          IBM compatible PC 286/386

     Before proceeding, make sure that you have Microsoft Windows correctly 
installed.  Next create a directory called PARENTS and copy the PARENTS 
software (PARENTS.EXE) into this directory.  PARENTS is now ready to be 
started.  Simply start PARENTS from the RUN... menu selection of the Windows 
Program Manager or add it to a Program Manager group by following the 
directions in the Windows 3.0 manual for creating a group item.  PARENTS 
will then create all of the data files it needs to run, and place them on 
the same drive and path where the software was installed.

     When PARENTS is started for the first time, the following entry will be 
placed in the WIN.INI file which is probably in the same directory where 
windows is installed.

     [PARENTS]
     DBPath=<drive>:<path>\

     This tells PARENTS where to find the data files.  The key word DBPath 
is set equal to the <drive> and full <path> including the trailing backslash,
where the PARENTS data files will reside.  For example:

     [PARENTS]
     DBPath=C:\Parents\

     You can change where PARENTS looks for the data files by simple 
altering the DBPath.  Then move the datafiles from the directory where they 
were created to the new directory you specified in the DBPath.

                              INDIVIDUAL WORKSHEET

     The main window for data collection is the INDIVIDUAL WORKSHEET.  All 
of the genealogical information about any individual can be entered into 
this worksheet.  It contains fields for the individual's name, birth date 
and place, christening date and place, the date and place where the 
individual was married, where and when the individual died and when and 
where the individual was buried.  In addition to these fields is a misc. 
notes field that can be used to store any additional information, and a 
place to indicate the sex of the individual.  The information that is 
entered into the date and place fields does not have to be in any specific 
format. 
 
MENU SELECTIONS FOR THE INDIVIDUAL WORKSHEET.
 
     NEW - This selection, from the FILE pull down menu, will display a 
blank INDIVIDUAL WORKSHEET.  After all of the information has been entered 
into the worksheet, click on the SAVE pushbutton.  This will add a new 
record to the data base storing all of the information that was entered. 

     OPEN - This selection, from the FILE pull down menu, will display a 
list of all of the individuals that have been entered into the database.  An 
individual can be selected from this list by highlighting it and clicking on 
the SELECT pushbutton or by double clicking on the selection.  All of the 
information that was previously stored in the database about this individual 
will be displayed in the worksheet.  This information can be updated or added
to, and then saved. 

     PRINT - This selection will print the worksheet information for the 
currently selected individual. 

PUSHBUTTON ACTIONS FOR THE INDIVIDUAL WORKSHEET.
 
     SAVE - This action will save the information that has been entered into 
the INDIVIDUAL WORKSHEET.  If SAVE is clicked after entering a NEW 
individual, the information will be added to the database.  If SAVE is 
clicked after updating the information for an existing individual, the 
updates will be saved in the database. 

     DELETE - An existing individual's information can be deleted from the 
database if that individual is not currently being used in the FAMILY TREE.  
After clicking the DELETE pushbutton, a message prompt will appear 
requesting a confirmation of the action.  If the individual exists in the 
FAMILY TREE, a message prompt will appear indicating that the individual 
cannot be deleted. 

     CLOSE - This action will close the INDIVIDUAL WORKSHEET.  If the 
worksheet was initiated by selecting OPEN... from the FILE menu, the 
Individual List will be redisplayed.

     NEXT - This action will display the data for the next individual record 
in the database.

     PREVIOUS - This action will display the data for the previous 
individual record in the database.
 

                               IMMEDIATE FAMILY TREE

     The IMMEDIATE FAMILY TREE displays and allows you to update a selected 
individual's family tree.  The FAMILY TREE's center box has a thicker border 
than the other boxes in the tree.  Any individual that is placed in this box 
will cause the tree to be centered around him or her.  In other words, all 
of that individual's immediate family will be displayed in the other boxes 
of the tree. 
     An individual can be placed in the FAMILY TREE's center box in one of 
two ways.  The first way is by dragging and dropping from the INDIVIDUAL 
LIST.  This is done by highlighting an individual with the mouse, and while 
holding the mouse button down, moving the mouse pointer over the center box.  
When the mouse button is released, the selected individual will appear in 
the center box and the rest of the tree will automatically be filled in.  
The second way is by highlighting an individual in the INDIVIDUAL LIST, then 
pulling down the RELATIONS pull down menu and selecting INDIVIDUAL.  Again, 
the selected individual will appear in the center box and the rest of the 
tree will be filled in. 
     The IMMEDIATE FAMILY TREE can also be used to create a family tree.  To 
do this, first make a selection from the INDIVIDUAL LIST and place that 
selection in the center box.  Then in the same manner as described above, 
place each member of the immediate family in the appropriate box.  As each 
selection is placed in the tree, that selection is related to the individual 
in the center box according to the position in which it is placed.  To the 
left of the center box is the Children List.  Each child of an individual in 
the center box, should be placed in the Children List.  Directly below the 
center box is the Spouse List.  The individual's current spouse and each 
previous spouse (if any) should be placed in this list.  At the top right of 
the center box is the Father box.  The Father of the selected individual 
should be placed in this box.  Directly below the  Father box, is the Mother 
box.  There are also two other boxes the are tied to the spouse list.  These 
two boxes are for displaying the parents of the currently highlighted spouse 
in the Spouse List.  These two boxes cannot be used to relate a Father or a 
Mother to a Spouse. 
     There are several special features of the IMMEDIATE FAMILY TREE.  The 
first feature is that the tree can be shifted in any direction to show the 
extended family tree.  This can be done by dragging and dropping an 
individual from any of the other family tree boxes to the center box.  For 
example, if the individual that is currently placed in the center box is 
John Smith and his father is Jack Smith, by dragging and dropping Jack Smith 
from the Father box to the Center box, the family tree will immediately be 
reorganized to show Jack Smith's immediate family.  In the process of doing 
this, John Smith will be moved from the Center box to the Children box which 
indicates that John Smith is a child of Jack Smith and the individual that 
appears in the Father box is John Smith's Grandfather. 
     The second special feature of the family tree is being able to edit the 
information about an individual.  This can be done by highlighting an 
individual in the INDIVIDUAL LIST and clicking on the EDIT pushbutton below 
the list or by double clicking on an individual in the list or in the FAMILY 
TREE.  The INDIVIDUAL WORKSHEET will appear with all of the information that 
had been previously stored in the database.  The information on this 
worksheet can be updated and saved except for the individual's name.  After 
editing the information, click the CLOSE pushbutton to return to the 
IMMEDIATE FAMILY TREE. 
 
MENU SELECTIONS FOR THE IMMEDIATE FAMILY TREE. 
 
     SHOW - This menu selection will show an empty IMMEDIATE FAMILY TREE.  
This tree can be used to display or update an individual's family tree. 
 
     HIDE - This menu selection will hide the IMMEDIATE FAMILY TREE, 
INDIVIDUAL LIST (and INDIVIDUAL WORKSHEET if shown). 
 
     SHOW LIST - This menu selection will show the INDIVIDUAL LIST.  This 
list can be used to build an IMMEDIATE FAMILY TREE. 
 
     HIDE LIST - This menu selection will hide the INDIVIDUAL LIST. 
 
     PRINT - This menu selection will print the currently displayed 
IMMEDIATE FAMILY TREE or INDIVIDUAL ANCESTRAL TREE. 
 
     CLEAR - This selection can be found in the EDIT pull down menu.  It is 
used to clear the family tree or remove a relation between two individuals.  
This depends on which family tree box is currently selected.  A family tree 
box can be selected by clicking on it with the mouse.  After doing so, a 
dotted rectangle will appear around the individual's name that is contained 
in the box.  If the center box is cleared, the entire family tree will be 
cleared.  If the Father or Mother box is selected, the box is cleared and 
the relation is removed.  If one of the children or spouses is highlighted, 
that child or spouse is cleared from the list and the relation is removed.  
The two boxes that are tied to the spouse box cannot be cleared. 
 
     RELATIONS - This pull down menu is only available when the IMMEDIATE 
FAMILY TREE is shown.  It can be used as an alternative way of placing an 
individual in a family tree box.  By highlighting an individual in the 
INDIVIDUAL LIST and then choosing one of the selections in the RELATIONS 
pull down menu, that individual will be placed in the corresponding family 
tree box. 

                                SPECIAL FEATURES

     DRAG AND DROP - Whenever an item is being transferred from one list to 
another, it may dragged and dropped.  This means that an item can be 
selecting with the mouse pointer, and while still holding the mouse button 
down, position the mouse pointer on top of the destination entry field.  
When the mouse button is released the selected item will appear in the entry 
field.  For example, if an individual is being placed in the family tree, it 
may be dragged and dropped from the individual list to the appropriate box 
in the tree.

     CLIPBOARD - The clipboard is a convenient way of transferring data 
between PARENTS and other Windows application or between different PARENTS 
windows.  To use the clipboard functions simply highlight any text that is 
displayed in an entry field, pull down the EDIT menu and choose COPY or CUT.  The COPY function will place a copy of the highlighted text in the Windows clipboard.  The CUT function also places the highlighted text in the clipboard but also removes it from the entry field.  To retrieve text from the clipboard, place the cursor at the position inside an entry field where the clipboard text should be inserted or appended.  Then pull down the EDIT menu and choose PASTE.  The clipboard text will be placed in the entry field at the cursor position.

     PRINTING - When the PRINT... selection is chosen from the FILE pulldown 
menu, the user has the option of printing either the IMMEDIATE FAMILY TREE 
or an INDIVIDUAL ANCESTRAL TREE.  Once the selection has been made, a dialog 
box will appear that prompts the user for a report title, type of report and 
whether to include the date and time the report was printed.  If the user 
selects the INDIVIDUAL ANCESTRAL TREE, they also have the choice of printing 
the entire tree or just part of it.

                                    ENHANCEMENTS

     The following is a list of the new features and enhancements that have 
been included in version 2.0 of PARENTS:
   o Addition of Windows 3.0 Help Manager
   o Proportional system font.
   o Printing has been improved.
   o Addition of Printer Setup.
   o Addition of pushbuttons to allow for easier data access.
   o UNRECOVERABLE ERROR bug fixed when dragging and dropping an individual 
      outside of a Family Tree box.
   o PARENTS is fully Windows 3.0 compatible.
   o Color icons.

     The following is a list of the new features and enhancements that have 
been included in version 2.1 of PARENTS:
   o Viewing an individual is now available by double clicking on an 
      individual box in the Family Tree.
   o WIN.INI file is updated automatically on startup.
   o Individual Boxes on the Family Tree have been expanded.

     The following is a list of the new features and enhancements that have 
been included in version 2.3 of PARENTS:
   o Enhanced printing.
   o Ability to print all or part of an individual ancestral tree.
   o Use of the status bar to display status messages.
   o User definable report titles.
   o User is allowed to edit an individual record by double clicking on an 
      individual box in the Family Tree.
   o Titles have been added to the Family Tree boxes.
   o Closing a worksheet that was initiated by the Open... selection will 
      return to the Individual List box.
   o The Immediate Family tree retains the last displayed data after hiding 
      and reshowing the tree.
   o Addition of the NEXT and PREVIOUS pushbuttons on the Individual 
      Worksheet to allow the user to browse through the database 
      alphabetically.

                                    EXITING

     When you have finished using PARENTS, you should exit via the EXIT 
selection from the FILE pull down menu.  If you forget and turn your 
computer off before exiting, PARENTS can not guarantee that your ancestors 
have been saved correctly.  It is very important that you always exit 
PARENTS via this selection.


NickleWare 
CompuServe: 72730,1002
Copyright (C) 1990-92 Bradley Nicholes 

This documentation must accompany the PARENTS software. 

NickleWare or Bradley Nicholes shall not be liable for any damages, 
whether direct, indirect, special or consequential arising from the use 
or failure of this program to operate in the manner desired by the user.

