THE BASICS THE OPENING MENU After you type PIRO to execute the program, the copyright information will be displayed. As indicated, press "C" to proceed past this. You will then come to the opening menu. The opening menu provides you with six choices: VIEW or Revise Data GENERATE Reports MODIFY or Create a Database PERFORM Housekeeping Tasks Execute a DOS command QUIT The capitalized words are key, or command words. To make a selection from this menu (or any other menu), you can simply press the first letter of the key word (e.g., press "V" for VIEW). Alternatively, you can use the cursor keys to move the light bar up and down until you highlight the desired selection, and press . The function of each menu selection is as follows: View. This will open a window for editing a database. This is the option you will use most, since it enables you to perform your actual data entry and database maintenance. Generate. This will open a window for designing reports, or running reports you have designed previously. Modify. This is where you define the structure of your database(s), and the layout of your input screens. Perform. This gives you access to the Housekeeping Menu. Housekeeping includes a variety of file maintenance tasks, such as copying and erasing files. This menu also includes the very important task of Initializing your directory, which will be discussed momentarily. DOS. This selection allows you to exit to DOS temporarily to perform some other task, such as formatting a disk. You can then return to the program by typing "Exit". Quit. This selection returns you to DOS permanently. BYPASSING THE OPENING MENU Pirouette also allows you to bypass the opening menu and go directly to a database or report. To go directly to a database, type: -11- C:\>piro view dbname from the DOS prompt, where "dbname" is the name of your database. If you have particular database you consult frequently, such as the ROLODEX, you can then set up a batch file to give you quick access. For example: rem This batch file calls up the Rolodex echo off c: cd\piro piro view rolodex cd\ cls Similarly, you can pull up a frequently used report by giving the command: C:\>piro generate repname where "repname" is the name of your report spec. INITIALIZING THE DIRECTORY Before you can actually use Pirouette, you must Initialize your DOS directory. This is a simple process, which need only be done once. Initializing creates two files, XXXX.DBF and XXXX.NTX, which Pirouette uses to keep track of index files. (If you don't know what index files are, don't worry about it -- they are something which Pirouette manipulates automatically.) To initialize, follow these steps: (1) select PERFORM Housekeeping Tasks from the opening menu; (2) select Initialize Directory from the housekeeping menu; (3) specify the name of the directory to hold the documentation (C:\PIRO if you're working on a hard disk, or B:\ if your working with a two-floppy system); and, (4) press to return to the opening menu when the initialization process is complete. You can now view, edit, or create database files. COMMANDS AND MENUS Software designers have, in the past, tended to choose one of two methods for program control. The first method, popularized by Lotus 1-2-3, uses a system of nested menus. This system is helpful while one is learning a new program, but can get rather annoying when you become expert, because you must use a series of keystrokes to wade through several menus to issue the command you want. -12- The alternative, exemplified by WordStar and WordPerfect, relies on using function keys or control keys ( or pressed simultaneously with some other keyboard key) to issue commands. This is much faster for the experienced user, but difficult to learn. With Pirouette, we believe we've hit upon an ideal compromise. At most any point in the program (e.g., when editing the data, or designing a screen or report) you can press to bring up a menu. All the menus are like the opening menu, in that they use key words, such as APPEND, FILTER, PURGE, and so on. To KILL an unwanted record in your database, for example, you would press to call up the menu, and then press "K". Once you have become familiar with these menus, however, you can speed up the process by pressing the key in combination with "K" (throughtout the rest of the manual we will simply refer to this combination of keystrokes as , or whatever). This will perform exactly the same function, but bypasses the menu. HELP As alluded to earlier, Pirouette also has an on-line Help facility which enables you to call up this very manual on screen while you are using the program. To access this, keep pressing until you are presented with a menu of chapter headings. Then choose the appropriate chapter. To return to the program from Help, just press . -13-