The MRP Collection Manager User’s Guide

 

Adding and Editing Data

 

To add new data records to your collection, select Add New Record(s) from the Edit menu. This will bring up the data-entry window:

 

 

Enter new values into the fields for the new record.  You can use the <TAB> key to move from field to field. You can leave blank any field for which you have no data.  Some fields (like “Country” in the example shown above), may have picklists associated with them, in which case there will be a drop-down list of choices; click on the triangle button to access the picklist. A picklist may be “strict,” in which case the field must either be blank or must contain a value exactly matching one of the values on the picklist.  If the picklist is not strict, you can enter a value that is not in the picklist by simply typing it into the field.  See Using Picklists for information on how to create picklists.

 

 

When you have finished entering data for the record click either “OK” or “OK, and Add Another”.  If you click “OK, and Add Another”, the dialog will remain on the screen, but the fields will be cleared out, and the window will be scrolled to the first data-entry field in preparation for entering data for another record.

 

Notes:

 


 

Some, or all, of the items in the menu may be disabled, depending upon whether text is selected in the field, whether the field is entirely blank, whether there is any text on the Windows clipboard, or whether previous cut/copy/past/delete operations have been performed on this field.

 

If you right-click on a multi-line text field, the popup menu will have additional items:

 

 

Note: The keyboard shortcuts CTRL-X (cut), CTRL-C (copy) and CTRL-V (paste) are available for all fields.

 

The Insert Special Character choice lets you insert characters that are not directly accessible from the keyboard. This includes accented characters and various symbol characters.  The following dialog will show if this choice is selected:

 

 

Click on the button for the symbol you wish to insert and then click Insert (and close) (or just press <Enter> on the keyboard).  The selected character will be inserted into the text box at the current cursor position.  You can insert more than one special character at a time by clicking on more than one of the special character buttons before closing this dialog.  See the section below, on Notes on Special Formatting Capabilities, for how you can place special characters into short text or one-line text entry fields.

 

The Text style options (which will only be enabled if you have selected some of the text so that it is highlighted) let you add formatting capabilities (italics or underlining) to parts of the text.  The Jump-to Link choice lets you create a hyperlink to another record in your collection database.  As an example, the following illustration shows an entry in a multi-line field named Description that includes a reference to another record (#97) in the collection database:

 

 

Select the ID # value (“97”) in the text and then right-click to pop up the options menu, and select Jump-to Link from the menu:

 

 

This will cause the selected text to become a hyperlink, shown as underlined blue text:

 

 

Later, when you view this record in Item Details mode, you will be able to click on this underlined blue text to jump directly to the indicated record:

 

 

Note: When selecting text to create a jump-to link, select only that text which corresponds to the actual ID # value of the target record.  In the example shown here, note that only “97” (not “#97”) was highlighted. This is because the ID # value of the target record in this case is “97” (not “#97”).

 

The Re-wrap text to fit choice will automatically re-draw the text in the selected editor box, wrapping it so that all lines fit the current width of the box.  This is useful if you have typed in a long line of text, causing the box’s contents to scroll horizontally.

 

The Edit field in larger pop-up window choice allows you to edit very long text in a larger editing window. This larger window, which will pop up if you make this menu choice, makes it easier to work on adding or editing large texts, since you will be able to see a large amount, if not all, of the text at once. The larger text-editing window is also resizable, so you can make the editing window as large as your full screen.

 

 

Entering Image Data:

 

If you have defined an “Image Directory”, then you need only specify the filename (e.g. “10.jpg”) when entering data into an image field. The program will automatically append the filename to the Image Directory to produce the full pathname (e.g. “c:\mycollection\mypix\10.jpg”) of the image file. If you want to specify an image file that is not in the defined Image Directory (or if your images are in various places and you choose not to define an Image Directory), then you must specify a full pathname for the image file. The filename should begin either with a one-letter drive specification and full path (e.g. C:\…) or with a World Wide Web path (beginning with http://). Any fully specified pathname or World Wide Web path will be treated as is, and will not be affected by the Image Directory path.

 

The easiest way to specify a link to an image file on your computer is to use the Browse button located next to the image link field. This lets you navigate to and select the image file, without having to type in its name. The program will transfer the name to the image field, taking into account the Image Directory definition where appropriate.

 

There is also a Test button next to each image field in the data-editing window. You can click this button to ensure that the specified name for the image file works. A window will pop up with the image displayed in it; or, if this cannot be done, an error message will indicate that the specified image file is either not there or is not in a standard image-file format.

 

Image files that you link to on your local computer can be of any of the standard kinds (JPG, BMP, GIF, TIFF, WMF, PNG, JPEG 2000, etc.).  All of these standard types will be displayed as thumbnails in the Item Details view and will be shown as large-size images when you click on the thumbnails.

 

You can enter more than one image into a single image field. Use a semicolon (;) to separate multiple images. Each one will appear as a separate clickable thumbnail image or clickable link in the Item Details display.

 

Notes on Special Formatting Capabilities:

 

As described earlier on this page, multi-line text fields provide the ability, though a right-button-click options menu, to format parts of the text as italics, underlined, or as a jump-to hyperlink.  The ability to add these formatting choices through an options menu is only provided for multi-line text fields.  Short text fields or one-line text fields do not have these choices on their options menu.  However you can request these formatting capabilities in short text and one-line text fields by using the following conventions:

 

 

Note: Within the data adding/editing window, these formatting marks added to short text and one-line text fields will display just as they are typed in.  However, when displayed in the Item Details view of the collection viewer window, these marked areas of text will display as italic, underlined, or as hyperlinks – exactly as the corresponding marked areas of text within multi-line text fields.

 

The special character dialog is also available only from the pop-up menu of multi-line text entry fields. If you want to insert a special character into a short text or one-line text field, right-click on any multi-line text-entry field and select Insert Special Character. Click on the button for the desired special character, click on Copy to clipboard, and then click Cancel.  You can then click on the location in the short text or one-line text field where you want to place the special character, and click CTRL-V.  This will paste the special character from the clipboard into the text field.

 

Within multi-line text fields, inserting an extra blank line within the text instructs the program to format this text as multiple paragraphs, when displayed in the Item Details view of the collection viewer window. This allows very long texts in a field to be broken into paragraphs, to make a more readable presentation in the Item Details display.

 

As an example of the various formatting capabilities, if you entered the following into a multi-line text-entry box for a field named Information:

 

This map was described in an article entitled Explorer’s Maps in the Golden Age of Discovery that was published in the festschrift Josef Hofnägel – 50 Years of Geographical Glory.

 

Another copy of this map, but one not published in the festschrift, but rather three years earlier, can be seen in map no. 123.

 

The map was engraved by Friedrich van Wissel.

 

then the Information section in the Item Details display for this item would look like this:

 

            Information:   This map was described in an article entitled Explorer’s Maps in the Golden Age of Discovery that
                                    was published in the festschrift Josef Hofnägel – 50 Years of Geographical Glory.

                                    Another copy of this map, but one not published in the festschrift, but rather three years earlier, can
                                    be seen in map no. 123.

                                    The map was engraved by Friedrich van Wissel.

 

Editing Data

 

Editing data is exactly like adding data, except that the data-entry window will appear with current information already filled in:

 

 

Any changes you make will be applied to the data fields when you click OK.  Alternatively, you can click on OK; go to previous record or OK; go to next record and the data-editing dialog window will stay in place, but the contents will be changed to reflect the prior or subsequent data record of the collection window. In any of these cases, the changes made in the data-entry window will be immediately reflected in the collection window.

 

When you go to the previous or the next record in the data-editing window, the collection viewer window’s contents does not normally change.  However, if you turn on the Keep collection window synchronized with this window check box, then the collection viewer window will track the data-editing window, and it will change to the previous or next record as you change to the previous or next record in the data-editing window.  This can be particularly useful if the collection viewer window is displaying Item Details, and your records include images.  By keeping the windows synchronized, you can add or edit information in the data-editing window while you are looking at the same record, including its thumbnail images, in the collection viewer window.  Note that even if you have turned the Keep collection window synchronized check box on, you can still go to the collection viewer window and request to see a different record than the one currently displayed; this will not cause the record shown in the data-editing window to change.  The synchronization only works in one direction: When you change to a new record in the data-editing window, the collection viewer window’s record will switch, if necessary, to show the same record.  Also, when you check the Keep collection window synchronized check box, the collection viewer window will be updated right away, if necessary, to display the same record as is shown in the data-editing window.

 

When editing data, the title-bar of the window will show the ID # value for the record being edited.  This allows you to keep track of which record you are editing, even if you have scrolled the display such that the ID # field is no longer visible.

 

Notes:

 

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