Getting started

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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. A comprehensive set a data fields enables you to keep track of a wide range of information.

The first time you start BookCAT, you see the "Welcome" screen. To open the sample database (Sample.mdb) click Open Sample Database. This database contains a few books to help you familiarize yourself with the program. Before you can start cataloging your collection, you must create your own database.

The main BookCAT window is divided into three parts:

1.The menu/toolbar at the top of the window.
2.The view bar to the left.
3.The rest of the window is occupied by the active view. There are a total of 6 different views: Explorer View, Book View, Contents View, Lookup View, Loan View, and Want List View.

Here is the Explorer View:

When you open a database, the program opens the Book View by default. To activate another view, click the view you want to activate in the view bar, select from the View button on the toolbar, or use the View menu.

For example, to activate the Explorer View, open the View menu and choose Explorer View (you can also press the Ctrl+1 shortcut). 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, choose Book View from the View menu (or simply press the Ctrl+2 shortcut).

All views, except the Explorer view, utilize the same layout.

The main part of the view is occupied by the browse list, with the explorer pane below the list.

To the left of the browse list you see the grouping list, and above this, the drop-down list with available grouping definitions. 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, books written by a specific author).

Above the browse list, you see three drop-down lists:

The drop-down list to the left includes available list layouts. A list layout contains information about which fields to display in the book 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 books are displayed. The data in the database remains the same; only the way data is being displayed changes. Note: You can also change the sort order by clicking the header of the column you want to sort on.
The drop-down list to the right includes available filters. A filter 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, books you have purchased this year, or books that are for sale).

To add a new book and manually enter the data, choose Add from the Book menu (or press the Ctrl+N shortcut).

To download data from the Internet, choose Add - Download from Internet from the Book menu (or press the Ctrl+Y shortcut). For more information, see Download information from the Internet.

To edit a book, simply double-click the book you want to edit in the browse list. This opens the 'Book Edit' window.

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

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!




Do you have question? E-mail us at support@fnprg.com.