






                               CD Catalog Version 1.10


          Enhancements

          This is version 1.10 of the CD Catalog program.  The following
          are the significant modifications for this version:

               -    Mouse aware.  A mouse can be used to navigate the menus
                    and data entry screens.  This permits much faster and
                    easier menu selection and data input.  If you don't
                    have a mouse, the program will still be easier to
                    operate.

               -    Bugs fixed in the search engine.

               -    Classifications are selected by a pop up menu rather
                    than operator entry.  This minimizes operator errors.

               -    Preview and Reports by title, artist, classification,
                    and location.

               -    Print outs can now be done for separate titles rather
                    than for the complete database.

          General Information

          This program is offered as shareware.  You can download the
          program and try it for 30 days.  After 30 days you must register
          the program for $15 to continue using it.  Use the registration
          form and fill in the requested information.  Mail the
          registration form with check or money order to:

          Hope Software
          6231 N. Shadowhill Way
          Loveland, Oh 45140

          Register this program to receive the full CD Catalog program with
          all the searching and reporting capability.

          The CD Catalog program was written to catalog and search for
          music CDs by title, artist, specific tracks (songs), etc.  There
          is a lot of flexibility in searching your CD database for
          specific information.  You can search for all tracks that are
          'Yellow Submarine' for example.  This search will produce results
          that indicate how many CDs contain the song 'Yellow Submarine' in
          your database.

          After a search is made for a specific CD or track, it can be
          played on your CD ROM drive.  A configurable command will start
          your CD ROM drive in the play audio mode on the correct track. 
          Because this command is configurable, you can use any CD ROM
          drive capable of playing audio CDs.















          The music categories are also configurable to permit you to use
          music categories that make sense for your music collection.  You
          are allowed up to 23 music categories.

          The CD Catalog program was written using a compiling database
          language.  This database compiler provides for the very fast
          searching and indexing of the data in the data base.

          System Requirements

               -    640K RAM
               -    Hard disk drive (amount of space required depends on
                    the amount of CD data cataloged).
               -    optional CD ROM drive

          Starting The Program

          Put the CD catalog executable (cdcat.exe) and all the other files
          created when cdcat is unzip'ed into a separate directory (cdcat
          is recommended).  Change to that directory with:

                    cd cdcat<enter>

          Execute the CD Catalog program:

                    cdcat<enter>

          Editing Fields

          Data fields can be acted upon by certain key combinations:

                    <end>     The <end> key will move the cursor to the end
                              of a field.
                    <home>    The <home> key will put the cursor at the
                              beginning of a field.
                    <ctrl>Y   <ctrl>Y will clear a field from the cursor to
                              the right.

          Entering Data

          When entering the CD catalog data, it is much easier to enter all
          the CD titles and related information (artist, year, etc) and not
          enter all of the track information.  The CD title cannot be
          changed once the CD has been cataloged.  You can only delete the
          CD title and start over.  Once all your CDs are entered, then go
          back and enter all of the track information.  This will make it
          much easier to get the information entered without a lot of re-
          work.

          Entering and Modifying CD Information

          CDs are cataloged by a unique CD title key.  Each CD entry in the
          database must have a unique title.  The title is not case
          sensitive.  A title of 'Greatest Hits' and 'GREATEST HITS' will














          be treated as the same title.  To create a unique title for CDs
          that have the same title, append the artist's name or other
          unique form of identifying the CD to the title.

          CD titles are entered and/or modified using the same menu
          selection.  Enter a CD title on the title line of the 'Create or
          Modify CD Record' screen.  Press <Page Down>.  If the entry is
          found the current information is shown on the screen and you may
          edit that CD record.  If the title is not found then you are
          asked if a new title should be created.  Enter 'Y' at the prompt
          to continue and enter a new CD title.

          The catalog program can be used to whatever level of detail is
          desired.  If you do not wish to use certain fields of the CD
          record then leave them blank.  If you do not want to enter each
          track of a CD then just skip entering this information.  It is
          not required, but makes searching for specific titles possible.

          The 'description' and 'notes' fields are available for entering
          any specific information that will help you catalog your CD
          collection.  The 'Location/ID' can be used for retrieving a CD
          once you have done a search on that CD.  If you were to use this
          field to record information that would allow you to get a
          specific CD quickly, then you can use the play CD portion of the
          program to play your CD after performing a search.

          When the catalog information is printed, any fields that are not
          filled in will not be printed.

          Searching the CD database and Playing CDs

          There is a very flexible searching mechanism built into CD
          Catalog for searching by different criteria.  The following are
          criteria that can be used in combinations to search the CD data
          base.  Each search criteria can only be used in the specific
          group that is specified.  You cannot perform searches across
          groups.

          Searches can be performed on the primary key field (first in the
          list) by entering partial field data.  Be sure that the partial
          field data is unique enough to meet your search needs.  If you
          were to enter 'L' for artist then all the artist fields beginning
          with 'L' will be found.  When multiple fields are combined to
          perform a search then all of the data in the fields must be
          complete.  Partial fields will not perform the searches properly
          on multiple field searches.

          The searches are not case sensitive.  'Greatest Hits' and
          'GREATEST HITS' will be treated as matching fields.

               Group 1 - Location

               You can search for a specific location.  All locations that
               match the entered data will be found.














               Group 2 - Classification

               All classifications that match the entered selection will be
               searched.  If you selected 'Jazz', then all CDs with a
               'Jazz' classification will be found.

               Group 3 - Label/Year

               Specific label(s) or label and year combinations will be
               searched.

               Group 4 - Artist/Year

               Specific artist(s) or artist and year combinations will be
               searched.

               Group 5 - Title/Artist

               Specific title(s) or tile and artist combinations will be
               searched.

               Group 6 - Song/Artist

               Specific song(s) or artist and song combinations will be
               searched.

          Deleting a CD Record

          A CD record can be deleted at any time using the 'Delete'
          selection from the 'Main Menu'.  Enter the title to be deleted
          and press <Page Down>.  The CD record will be displayed on the
          screen.  Enter 'Y' to delete the record.  'N' to leave the CD in
          the data base.

          List CD titles on Screen

          Use the 'List' menu selection to display CD titles on the screen.

          Printing a CD Catalog

          Choose the 'Print' selection to print catalog selections to the
          printer or file.

          Utilities

               CD Stop

                    Use this menu selection to stop playing a CD in the CD
                    ROM drive.

               Configuration

                    Printer Port















                    Make the printer port selection for printing CD
                    catalogs.  The 'OUTPUT' selection sends the printed
                    output to a file named 'OUTPUT.PRN' in the current
                    directory.

                    Play CD Command

                    This is the command (program) that your CD ROM drive
                    uses to start playing an audio CD in the CD ROM.  If
                    your play CD program can play a specific track then use
                    a '%1' to indicate where the CD catalog program is to
                    fill in the track number.  If the complete CD is to be
                    played, then the '%1' will be replaced with a 1. 
                    Otherwise the track number to play (or to start play)
                    will be substituted for the '%1'.

                    Stop CD Command

                    This is the command (program) that will stop the CD in
                    your CD ROM drive.

                    Music Classifications

                    Enter in your own music classifications or use the
                    classifications already programmed.

               Backup

               This menu selection is used to back up your CD data base to
               floppy disk.  The drive is selected and the data base files
               are copied to floppy disk.  Be sure that there is enough
               room on the floppy disk to hold all the .dbf and .ntx files.

               Restore

               Use this menu selection to restore backed up data bases from
               floppy disk.  The floppy disk drive is selected before the
               restore operation is begun.

               NOTE: Restoring over a data base already on the hard disk
               drive will over write the data base already on hard disk and
               may result in a complete or partial loss of data.


               Database Indexes

               If the data base indexes are ever corrupted then this menu
               selection will restore them.  If you ever find that searches
               are acting strange, or CD titles cannot be looked up
               reliably then rebuild the database indexes.  There is no
               harm in rebuilding the data bases, even if there is no
               problem.

               If cdcat will not run at all because of corrupted database














               indexes then use the command:

                    cdcat /index<enter>

               This command will rebuild the databases.  Then you can run
               cdcat normally and the program should start properly.

               Import/Export

               This menu selection will save any titles that you choose
               onto floppy disks in a CD Catalog compatible database.  As
               many titles as desired can be chosen and written to the
               floppy disk database.  These titles can be restored
               individually by selecting the titles from the floppy disk
               database one at a time.  This is a nice way to share or
               exchange CD music titles and save a lot of work entering the
               data into each database.

               Alternate Database

               You can list and delete titles from an alternate data base. 
               This is valuable for managing an Import/Export database, or
               a backup database.

               Enter the path to the alternate database.  For a floppy
               drive enter either 'A:' or 'B:'.











































                                  Registration Form

          Name:_____________________________________________

          Address:___________________________________________

          City:________________ State:_______Zip:_______________


                    Send To:  Hope Software
                              6231 N. Shadowhill Way
                              Loveland, Oh 45140
















































