Register  -  Club membership database

by Paul Witheridge

Register is a simple database for keeping a register of club
membership. It stores a name, address, phone number and up to ten
additional lines of information for each club member.

It is intended to be easy to use, requiring only a basic
knowledge of the desktop and a minimum of preparatory work to set
it up.

It supports multiple membership registers and the moving or
copying of entries between them. It can print membership lists
and labels. It can export data to, or import data from, other
applications.

In case you are puzzled by the "swimmer" icon, Register was
initially developed for a disabled swimmers' club. The data icon
is similar to that for the application, with the addition of a
rectangular black border.

Installing Register on the icon bar
Running the item from the RISC User menu system installs the application on the icon bar, and also opens an archive containing the application together with an example file called !Example. The application, and if required the example, can be run from the archive in future, but if you want to save back any data you must transfer it to your hard disc and run it from there.

Creating a new membership register
To create a new set of register data (i.e. a new database), click
Menu over the icon on the icon bar and choose New register from
the resulting menu.

This will pop up a save box. Enter the name for the new
membership register in the box (note that this name must begin
with an exclamation mark: "!"). Then drag the data icon from the
box to a target directory window.

An empty membership register will be created in the target
directory and an empty register window will be opened, ready for
adding new entries.

Loading an existing membership register
To load an existing membership register into the application,
drag its data icon from the directory window to the Register
application icon on the icon bar. Alternatively, just double
click Select or Adjust on the data icon.

Register data will be displayed in a register window as an
alphabetical list of club members' names. Each line corresponds
to one "entry" in the register. More than one set of register
data can be loaded at the same time. Each will be displayed in
its own window.

Note: when an existing register is "loaded", only the list of
members names is actually loaded into the computer's memory. The
bulk of the information remains on disc and is accessed only as
needed. The information loaded into memory is technically known
as the index, while that remaining on the disc is called the
data. This arrangement makes it possible to handle databases
bigger than the amount of RAM installed on your computer.

You can usually use the Page Up and Page Down keys to scroll the
register window up and down, but this may not work when other
application windows are open on the desktop, because these
applications may have a prior claim on the use of the keys. If you have more than one register window open, then
the Page Up and Page Down keys will scroll the last one that you
clicked on.

Saving register data after updating
If you change the contents of a register by adding, deleting or
updating entries (see below), then to record the updated data on
disc, you must save the register (alternatively, you can close
the register window, discarding all changes since the last save
action).

To save the register data, click Menu over the window and choose
Save from the resulting menu. The changes that you have made
will then be "committed" to the database on disc.

The register window's title bar will show an "*" flag to indicate
that the register data has been modified since the last save. The
menu Save choice will be greyed out if the data has not been
modified and there is no need to save it.

Closing a register window
Click on the close tool of a register window to close it. If the
register data has been modified, you will be asked if you want to
save it or not.

Adding a new entry to a register
To add entries to a register, click Menu over its window and
choose Add new entry. A dialogue box will pop up with text fields for you to fill in
(name, address, phone, plus the ten additional information
lines).

You can use the Page Up and Page Down keys to scroll this dialogue
box up and down.

You can choose the personal title by clicking on one of the four
buttons shown (Mr, Mrs, Master or Miss). The one that you
choose will be displayed in the grey title box just below these
buttons. If you want a different title (not covered by one of the
four buttons), then click Select on the menu pointer icon at
the right of the grey title box. This will display an extended
menu of personal titles. Click Select on the one you want, or if
this does not appear in the menu, see below for how to define
additional personal titles.

When you have finished, click on Add to store the new entry in
the database. Click on Cancel, press Escape, or just click
anywhere within the register window to cancel the new entry.

Viewing an existing entry's contents
Double-click Select over an entry in a register window to view
the contents. A window will pop up showing the full contents of
the entry (name, address, phone plus the ten additional lines of
information).

You can use the Page Up and Page Down keys to scroll this window
up and down.

To close the window, click on its close icon, press Escape, or
just click anywhere outside the window. The latter is very
convenient when looking through the contents of one entry after
another  just double-click on each entry in turn.

Changing an existing entry's contents
Double-click Adjust over an entry to change the contents.
A dialogue box will pop up showing the full contents of the entry for
you to modify. This is the same dialogue box that is used to add
new entries. 

You can use the Page Up and Page Down keys to scroll this window
up and down.

For all information except the personal title, just edit the
corresponding text.

To change the personal title to Mr, Mrs, Master or Miss,
just click on the appropriate button. To select any other
personal title, click Select over the menu pointer icon to the
right of the title box and select the required title from the
resulting menu.

Click on Update to store the updated contents back in the
database. Click on Cancel, press Escape, or just click anywhere
within the register window to cancel the update.

Deleting an existing entry
To delete an existing entry, click Menu over the entry in the
register window. The first choice in the resulting menu leads to
a submenu. Choose Delete from this submenu. You will be asked
to confirm the delete action.

You can also delete multiple entries at once by selecting them
before clicking Menu and chosing Delete from the Selection
submenu (see below for instructions on how to select entries). 

Register window menu
Click Menu over a register window for a list of actions for that
register.

The first choice in the menu leads to a submenu of choices that
apply either to a previously selected set of entries or, if no
entries are selected, to the entry under the pointer when Menu
was clicked.

Other choices from the register window menu apply to the whole
register. Most are self-evident, but all are described in detail
in the Manual file (see More information below).

Selecting individual entries
Click Select over a register entry to select that entry. This
also de-selects any other entries that were previously selected.

Click Adjust over an entry to select it without de-selecting any
other previously selected entries. Clicking Adjust over an
already selected entry will de-select it again.

Selecting a range of entries
Drag Select over several entries to select them all. This also
de-selects any other entries that were previously selected.

Drag Adjust over several entries to select them all without
de-selecting already selected entries. Dragging Adjust over
already selected entries will de-select them again.

Printing
You can print the contents of an entire register by choosing the
Print all option from the register window menu, or print
selected entries only by choosing the Print option from the
selection submenu. There are similar choices for printing labels
for the entire register or just selected entries.

In both cases, you will be offered the option of printing via the
RISC OS printer drivers (the default choice), or bypassing these
and printing directly to the printer. The latter option was
provided mainly for compatibility with a previous version of
Register that ran on a BBC micro. However, it can also be useful
for systems without hard discs, with limited memory, or even
where you (like me) still have the occasional problem with the
RISC OS printer drivers and the printing of text!

You can find more details about printing in the Manual file
(see More information below).

Icon bar menu
Click Menu over the Register application icon on the icon bar for
options that apply to all register windows, to create a new
register, or to quit the application.

Some of the icon bar menu choices allow you to add, update or
delete personal titles (e.g. Lord, Admiral). You will not
normally need to do this, but if you do, it is important that you
understand what may happen.

Updating the list of personal titles
You may want to update the list of personal titles, either to add
a new title that is not already in the list, or to change the
spelling or format of an existing entry to your own preference.

Register maintains a single list of personal titles that applies
to all membership register databases. The individual register
entries (say the entry for "Mr A Smith") contain a title
reference number rather than the text of the title itself (so the
entry for "Mr A Smith" contains the reference number "2" instead
of the text "Mr",because "Mr" is the second title in the list).
This is done to save space in the register index and to ensure
that personal titles adhere to a consistent format across all
register entries.

However, it also means that if you choose to update a personal
title definition, then all entries in all registers that refer to
that title will immediately use the new definition instead of the
old one. Also, if you delete a title definition that is used by
one or more register entries, these entries will display "Error"
instead of the old title.

Because of the way this list of title definitions works, if you
define a new title, it will always be added to the end of the
list, so as not to affect the sequence of the existing
definitions. Also, you cannot delete a title definition unless it
is the last one in the list. This sounds restrictive, but in
practice, it works without problems. As a precaution, you cannot
edit or delete the first seven titles in the list, which are
fixed as the most common titles.

Running Register under RISC OS 2
Register will run under either RISC OS 2 or RISC OS 3, but by
default uses 3D window definitions that look best under RISC
OS 3. An alternative set of window definitions and sprites are
supplied for use with RISC OS 2. To activate these:

  Open the !Register application directory by double-clicking
with Select over the !Register icon while at the same time
holding down the Shift key. In the !Register application
directory, you will find two window template files called
Templates and TemplOS2, plus two sprite files called
Sprites and SpritOS2.

  Rename the file Templates to TemplOS3.

  Rename the file TemplOS2 to Templates.

  Rename the file Sprites to SpritOS3.

  Rename the file SpritOS2 to Sprites.

Backing up your data
Register tries to recover from any errors found in the database,
but this is no substitute for keeping proper backups of your
data. So:

  After making a series of changes to a membership register,
finish off by making a backup copy

  Keep at least two such backup copies. This is best done by
using two different floppy discs and alternating between them
(keeping a written log of which was used last and when)

  If you want to be extremely careful, keep more than two backups and store them in different places. 

More information
For more details, see the file Manual in the !Register application
directory. To open a directory window for this application
directory, hold down the Shift key and double-click on the
!Register application icon (in the directory window). Load the
file called Manual into !Edit to view it.

You will also find a printable version of this file with the name
ManualPrt. Drag this file to your RISC OS printer driver to
print it. 

Copyright  RISC User 1995
