Welcome to BookCAT!

BookCAT is a powerful database program designed to catalog and manage a personal, club, school, church, or business library. BookCAT will help you know what you have, where it is (including books lent out) and the total value of your collection. Using BookCAT you can quickly catalog your books by downloading information from the Internet. Designed for the Windows environment, BookCAT is comprehensive, intuitive, and easy to use. For more information, see What is BookCAT? and key features.

Before you can start cataloging your collection, you must open a database or create a new database. The first time you start BookCAT, the sample database (Sample.mdb) is automatically opened.

The main window is divided into three parts: The menu/toolbar at the top of the window, the view bar to the left (if you can't see the view bar, choose View Bar from the View menu). The rest of the window is occupied by the active view. There are a total of five different views: the Explorer view, Book view, Contents view, Loan view, and Lookup view. In addition, you can create your own custom views, enabling you to easily access relevant information in your database (books, authors, publishers, etc.).

When you open a database, the program activates the Book view. To activate another view, click the view you want to activate in the view bar, or select from the View menu. For example, to activate the Explorer View, click Explorer View in the View bar, or choose Explorer View from the View menu. The Explorer is a fully featured browser integrated into the main window that allows you to search/browse your collection.

You will probably use the Book view the most. This is the view you use when you want to add new books. To active the Book view, click Book View in the View bar, or choose Book View from the View menu.

All views, except the Explorer view, utilize the same layout. The main part of the view is occupied by the browse list. Above the browse list, there are three drop-down lists. (If you cannot see these lists, choose Lists -> Layout / Sort Order / Filter from the View menu.)

The drop-down list to the left includes available list layouts. A list layout contains information about which fields to display in the browse list. You can create as many list layouts as you want.

The drop-down list in the middle includes available sort orders. A sort order defines the order in which data are displayed. The data in the database remains the same; only the way data is being displayed changes.

The drop-down list to the right includes available filters. A filter is used to determine which records that are displayed in the browse list, and makes it possible to work with a subset of the database (for example, only paperbacks or books that are for sale).

To the left of the browse list is the drop-down list which includes available grouping definitions. Below is the grouping values list. (If you cannot see these two lists, choose Lists -> Grouping from the View menu.)

The grouping feature is used to determine which books that are displayed in the browse list, and makes it possible to work with a subset of the database (for example, only paperbacks or books purchased a specific year). Using the grouping feature is similar to using a filter, except that it is easier to change the value used in the filtering process.

To add a new book and manually enter the data, choose Add from the Book menu (or press Ctrl + N). To get the book data from the Internet, choose Add - Query Internet from the Book menu (or press Ctrl + Y). To edit a book, double-click the book in the browse list. You see the 'Book Edit' window.

You can change the layout of the data entry window by using the Form Designer (choose Form Designer from the File menu).

To close the data entry window, click the OK button (or choose Close Window from the File menu). All changes are automatically saved.

We recommend you take a look at the tutorial if you want more information on how to use BookCAT.

If you need support, don't hesitate to contact us. If you want to order BookCAT, please see our web site.

We hope you enjoy using BookCAT!