Hi Kate,
Please don't take it as an offence but have you consider to include this
post on the gnu manual?
It is a grate one!
Thanks again Rhonda!!
Please feel free to write me off-list if you deem it necessary..
Regards, Hilda.
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
"We say with great insistence, that the ordinary blind person can do the
ordinary job in the ordinary place of business and do it as well as the
ordinary sighted person, and we mean by that, that the extraordinary blind
person can do the extraordinary job in the extraordinary place of business
and do it as well as any extraordinary sighted person can..."
m-Dr. Marc Maurer at the NFB 2001 Everest Expedition Celebration
----- Original Message -----
From: "Rhonda Clark" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: "BrailleNote List" <[email protected]>
Sent: Sunday, August 06, 2006 3:39 PM
Subject: [Braillenote] Database
I am hoping this will help some of you who may want to create a medical
history database, or piano tuning one, or whatever you want. I tried to
get both sets of commands in, and as always, the QWERTY commands are in
parenthesis.
To create a new database, select Database Manager from the Main Menu.
KeyBase prompts: "Database to use?". Instead of selecting an existing
database, you will now type the name of the database you wish to create
(such as Medical History) and press ENTER. KeyBase will prompt: "File
does not exist. Create a new file?". Confirm that you wish to create a
new file, by typing Y.
You will then be led through the process of creating a new database.
This includes the following:
Field Definition List.
Once you have created a new database by typing and confirming the new
database name, KeyBase will display "Field definition list for Medical
History".
Think of all the information that you want to keep. Each piece of
information becomes a field and you can have up to 150 different fields in
your database. Also consider which order you want the fields presented
when you add a record. You will need to decide on the type of data to
store in each field. Is the data a date, time, number or text only? The
type of data you store in each field is known as a field type and there
are 8 choices:
For the Medical History database, the following fields and field types
will be entered in the order below:
Reason for appointment -- String
Appointment Date -- Date
Appointment Time -- Time
Medical Practitioner -- String
Prescription Issued -- Yes or No
Notes -- Document
Medical Center Name -- String
Medical Center Cost -- Number
Prescription Cost -- Number
Think carefully about the field type, because if you change a field type
after you have added data to your database, any data already stored in the
previous type will no longer be displayed.
When you are ready to start defining the fields, press SPACE at the
prompt: "Field Definition List". KeyBase will prompt "Field 1 name?".
Type a name for the first field that you want to be presented with when
you add records and press ENTER. In the example of a Medical History
database, the first field is "Reason for appointment".
The prompt "Field type for Reason for Appointment? Currently string" will
be displayed. To confirm that this is the correct field type for this
field, press ENTER. KeySoft will then prompt "Field 2 name?". Type
"Appointment Date" and press ENTER. KeySoft will then prompt: Field type
for "Appointment Date? Currently string". This field is a date field not
a string field and you must therefore change the field type. To cycle
through the list of types, press SPACE with dots 3-4 repeatedly (Ctrl with
Space), until Date is displayed and then press ENTER. KeySoft will then
prompt Field 3 name?. Continue on adding all the fields in the order you
want them presented.
You can review the field names and types you have already added by
pressing SPACE or BACKSPACE. While reviewing the fields you can change
the field names, as well as inserting, deleting, or changing the order of
the fields:
To change the name of a field, either type the new name and press ENTER
or edit the existing name using the standard KeySoft editing commands.
Note that if you are using a Braille keyboard you can type field names in
your preferred keyboard grade. When you review the field names, you will
notice that they are displayed in your preferred reading grade. However,
KeyBase stores field names internally as text, so if you edit a field name
you must make sure to edit using computer Braille.
To insert a field before the current field, for example to add "Medical
Center Address" before "Prescription Cost", press SPACE with dots 2-6,
(Ctrl Enter.) The current field and all subsequent fields are moved down
one place to open up a gap for the new field to occupy.
To delete a field, for example, the Appointment Time field in your
Medical History database, press BACKSPACE with dots 1-4, (Ctrl I).
KeyWord will prompt: "Delete Appointment Time field. Sure?". If you type
Y, the field will be deleted from the Database Definition. The subsequent
fields will move up a place. In other words, "Medical Practitioner" will
take the place of "Appointment Time" and "Prescription Issued" will take
the place of "Medical Practitioner" and so on.
To move the current field up one place in the Field Definition List, that
is, closer to the beginning of the list, press BACKSPACE with dots 2-3,
(Ctrl with 7). If the field can be moved up by one place, the field name
prompt will be repeated and the new position number is displayed. For
example, "Field 2 name? Currently Appointment Date", becomes "Field 1
name? Currently Appointment Date". This move will then force the first
field in the list, "Reason for Appointment", to become Field 2.
To move the current field down one place in the Field Definition List,
that is, closer to the end of the list, press BACKSPACE with dots 2-3,
(Ctrl with 7). If the field can be moved down by one place, the field
name prompt will be repeated and the new position number is displayed.
For example, "Field 4 name? Currently Medical Practitioner", becomes
"Field 5 name? Currently Medical Practitioner". This move will then force
the next field in the list, "Prescription Issued", to become Field 4.
There are numerous options available for each field, depending on the
field type. To review these options for the current field, press
BACKSPACE with O (Ctrl with 2) after the Field Type prompt. To exit the
Field Definition List, press SPACE with E, (Escape). KeyBase will prompt:
"Sort Order is Reason for Appointment. Change?".
Note: If you decide to change a field type after records have been added,
any fields that had been assigned with the original field type will not be
displayed. This situation does not apply for string and document field
types as they are interchangeable. A string is a sequence of characters.
For example, you can enter a string to retain important phone numbers;
months of the year or the symbol representing a currency. A string can be
presented in text or any grade of Braille and is sorted alphabetically.
The maximum length of a string is 255 characters. For longer entries or
multiple line entries, use a document field type.
Note: When you include characters and numbers in a sequence, they are
treated as words. To store the sequence with the numbers in numerical
order, put a 0 in front of numbers 1-9. Number.
This Field Type applies to any sort of number, but can only contain
digits, the negative sign and a decimal point. The number field type is
therefore unsuitable for storing phone numbers as they may contain spaces,
brackets, and so on.
Suitable numbers to have in your database, include quantities, ages, and
event years. Numbers can also represent measurements, such as
temperature, and quantities (dollars and cents, for instance).
Numbers are sorted numerically.
Yes or No.
The Yes or No Field Type provides two options to choose from; yes or no.
This is useful when you want to include a question requiring a yes or no
answer in your database, for instance, "Was there a prescription issued?".
Document.
The maximum length of data allowed in a string field type is equivalent
to 255 characters. If you think the data you want to add to a field will
be beyond this limit, use a document field type. In the case of a Medical
History database, you could add a document that outlines details of your
treatment schedule or lists the ingredients in your medication.
An advantage of using the document field type over a string field type is
that a document is two dimensional. That is, you are able to read and
edit it as you would with a document in KeyWord.
Date.
The Date Field Type is useful for keeping a record of events such as your
last dental check-up or when you purchased an appliance that is under a
fixed warranty. If you want to enter the date for today, type "today".
A date is sorted chronologically. Time.
The Time Field Type is useful for keeping a record of events such as what
time you spoke to someone on your Ham Radio or the time of a medical
appointment.
Field Options
There are numerous options available for each field, depending on the
field type. These can be reviewed or changed by pressing BACKSPACE with O
(Ctrl with 2) when a field type prompt is displayed.
The Field Options are displayed as a list. Move forward or back through
the list by pressing SPACE or BACKSPACE. To change an option, either
select or type the new value and press ENTER. When you are happy with the
options, return to the Field Definition List by pressing SPACE with E,
(Escape).
For String Fields, you have 4 options to choose from that are exclusive
to this Field Type:
"Braille Option?"
This is used to determine how the field will be entered and if Braille
code or Unicode is stored in the database for this field. On units that
have a Qwerty keyboard, Unicode is used universally.
If you have a unit with a Braille keyboard, the options are:
Preferred Keyboard Grade, which is used for general strings such as
names, descriptions, etc. Your entry will be stored and displayed again,
exactly as you entered it.
Computer Braille, which is used when combinations of letters, punctuation
and/or numbers are entered. For example, email addresses, post codes,
etc.
Back-translate from preferred grade. You will be able to use grade 2, or
whatever your preferred keyboard grade is when adding this field, but the
field will be stored in the database as Unicode. When the field is
displayed, it will be displayed in your Preferred Reading Grade. Use this
for fields you will be sorting on to ensure that they are sorted
correctly. If you select a string field type as one of the fields in the
Sort Order, KeyBase will automatically change the Braille Option to
"Back-translate from preferred grade".
"Braille Prefix?"
If you are using literary Braille, you can choose between Capital Sign,
Double Capital Sign, Auto Number Sign and None.
"Field Context?"
This option is used for many different purposes, including controlling
how the contents of the field will be displayed.
Fields usually contain fragments of text that by themselves, do not
denote context. For instance, in some cases the pronunciation that is
used is dependent on the context. For example, "Dr" in a "Title" field is
"Doctor", but in an "Address" field, is most commonly the abbreviation for
"Drive".
The options for Field Context are as follows:
General (the default)
Spell
Name
Address
Town or City
State
Country
Organization
Password
Email address
Phone number
"Maximum Length?"
The default maximum length is 255. Numbers between 1 and 255 can be
entered. If you need longer fields, use a Document field-type. Usually
you would leave this set to 255. However, if you will be using the
database in a situation where you are printing on pre-printed forms, for
example, where there is a specific limit on the length of a field, then
set this appropriately to ensure that your entry will fit in the
pre-printed space.
For Number fields, you have 1 option that is exclusive to this Field Type:
"Number format?"
The options are preferred setting (this is the default and uses the Number
Format setting in the Review Options List); digits and words.
The settings below, apply to all field types and follow on from the
settings above:
"Help message?"
Any entry in this option will be displayed when you request "help" on this
field in the "Add Record" option. It is displayed in addition to the
standard KeySoft help and the default for this setting is blank.
"Default value?"
The default for this setting is blank. When a new record is initialized,
the field is set to the default value. For example, a "City" field with a
default of "Auckland", will appear as "City? Currently Auckland", in the
"Add Record" option.
There is no difference in the amount of work involved in changing the
city than there is to assign a field without a default value. However, if
the majority of new database entries have "Auckland" as the city, having
"Auckland" as the default improves the efficiency.
Note: If a default value is specified, this value is actually added to
all records and uses storage space that would not be used if the field was
left blank.
For date and time fields, "auto" can be entered as the default value.
This sets the field to the time or date when the record was created.
"Display option?"
The display options are normal; read only and hidden.
An example of when this setting can be used is with auto time and date
fields. You want the date and time logged as well as used to print,
emboss or merge the data, but you don't need to review or change it.
Another example of when the display option is useful, is for filling in
forms using KeyBase. There may be some fixed fields on the form, such as
a tax number. These are set with a default value and they would otherwise
clutter the list when adding or reviewing fields.
Sort Orders.
After you have defined the fields you require for a database, the next
priority is to define how you want the records sorted. This determines
the order in which the records are presented during the lookup records
process. For example, sort the records in chronological order by the
"Appointment Date", when looking for all records with "sore throat" in the
Reason for appointment field.
After you have set your sort order, and you press E chord, (Escape), you
will see that the database for "medical history", or whatever name you
chose does not exist. You will be asked if you want to create a database
with that name. You would say "yes". Remember that this is your hidden
file, (your (Cdb file). This is the file that you would write your
records in.
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