Tropical Feeds 4.0 (Dos version) Starting the Program To start the program from the dos prompt type: cd \tropical go You will see the title page of the program followed by the programs main screen. Basic Operation The program can be operated using either the mouse or keyboard. When using the keyboard there are a number of key combinations that will achieve the same effect. This flexibility allows you to use whichever method you find most intuitive. The Menu The menu bar behaves in a similar way to a Microsoft WindowsTM menu bar. Press Alt- and one of the highlighted keys to pull down the desired menu. Alt-S will pull down the search menu. As you move down the items in the menu with the arrow keys you will notice that a short description of each menu item is given in the line at the bottom of the screen. At other times this bottom line gives information on helpful key combinations and how much memory is available to the program. Dialogue Boxes A dialogue box is a window that pops up to either tell you of some error condition that has occurred, or to request further input before an action can be completed. An example is the Printer Setup dialogue, which requests you enter details about your paper size. A dialogue box can several input lines, such as the text search dialogue, and usually has several buttons associated with it that allow you to tell the dialogue whether to accept or abort your dialogue. You can usually select things from the dialogue box by clicking on top of a specific control with the mouse - or you can repeatedly press the tab button until the control you want is highlighted (by a change in colour). A highlighted control is said to be 'selected' or said to have 'input focus' and will receive your key presses. Common Buttons you find in dialogue boxes include: Cancel Ü No Ü ßßßßßßßß ßßßßßßßßß Clicking on these buttons, or pressing [Esc], says "No, go back to what I was doing -- don't change or do anything!". and Ok Ü Yes Ü ßßßßßßßß ßßßßßßßßß Clicking on these buttons, or pressing [Enter], says "Yes, keep the changes I've made and proceed with the next thing". An Example From the search menu press the 'F' and then 'A' keys to bring up the list of feeds of animal origin. You will see a box containing a list of feeds and two buttons. You can type in the first few letters of the feed and then press enter to select a feed - alternatively you may use the arrow keys to select the feed, or, if you prefer to use the mouse click on the scroll bar to move through the list of feeds. Double click on the desired feed (or click on the view button to select a feed). If there are no more selections to make you will see a feed viewer. Use the arrow keys to scroll through the details or press 'F7' to print them. You may only print an article that you are currently viewing. The references relating to the feed will be at the bottom of the entry. If there are abstracts these will be available from a menu 'Additional' on the menu bar on the top right of the screen. The abstract viewer works in the same instinctive way as the rest of the program. The Text Search A text search will search either through the entire database or through selected fields in the database for words or phrases that you specify. Use the search lists dialogue box to specify the search criteria. Once you have the list of papers that satisfy the search criteria you can read or print them individually. The Text Search dialogue box You use this dialogue box to tell the computer how to search through the file for topics you are interested in. The program can search the entire database or you can restrict the search to specific fields in the database. For example you could search the database for all the entries with 'wood' in the description. There are two buttons at the top of the dialogue box used to bring into view more lists. You may enter up to six different lists in this dialogue box. In the next row there are two edit controls used to enter words that you wish to search for. Then there are the two lists that show you what information you have entered. Between these two lists is a list of fields. You may restrict parts of your search to certain fields within the database. To search for the keyword 'toxic' in the description you would double click on the 'Description' field and then add the word 'toxic' below the field name in the list. In the rest of the dialogue box there are more buttons: OkÜ ßßß Exit the list editor and keep all the recent alterations. The Search will start automatically after you press 'ok'. CancelÜ ßßßßßßß Exit the list editor without keeping any recent alterations. This is equivalent to pressing the key. AddÜ ßßßß Add the word in the current edit control to the current list. This is equivalent to the key. AmendÜ ßßßßßß To change any search word already in a list you first choose the word to amend then move the cursor to the edit control and modify the word finally press the 'Amend' button. DeleteÜ ßßßßßßß Delete the selected word from the current list. ClearÜ ßßßßßß Clear the selected list of all words and fields.