It would be great if every new software package were intuitive and self-explanatory so that anyone could learn how to use it without training or picking up the User Guide. Unfortunately that is not always possible. As software develops from one version to the next it often acquires so many features that it's impossible to use all of them without a little help.

We have tried to make InfoRecall as intuitive and easy to use as possible. Our aim was to design InfoRecall so that anyone with modest Windows skills can produce results without spending days learning it. Once you know the basic operation you can move on to the more advanced features. So, rather than exploring all the features of the program now, let's just learn some of the basics.

Create a Folder

You can create Folders quite easily in InfoRecall. Follow the steps below to create a Folder called: Sample.

• Choose New from the File menu
• In the Type a New Folder Name box type: Sample.
• Click the OK button.
• Click the Cancel button to exit Folder Manager.

Your new Folder is created and immediately opened ready for your use. InfoRecall will look like the sreenshot below.

Create and Save Documents

Now that we have a Folder, let's create some documents. It is very easy. All we need is a document name and then type in some text, format it some and put in some graphics. The document name can be up to 40 characters long. The document can be saved automatically but for now we will save it manually.

Click the first tool bar button on the left. This creates a new blank document. The cursor will be in the Document Name Box.

Type in (without the double quotes): "This is a sample document for testing purposes". You wont get that far. You will only get as far as "pu" before a message will warn you that the document name is longer than 40 characters.

Click anywhere on the Editor and type in some text. Anything at all but somewhere type in "example" (without the double quotes).

Highlight a word by double clicking on it. Click the B (for Bold) button Highlight another word and click the color underlined A button. Click on a color. Click the Font menu and choose another character formatting menu item. Play around with this until you're familiar with it.

Choose Insert Picture form the Insert menu. Find a graphic Folder on your hard disk. If you don't know where then go to your Windows directory and click on a graphic Folder with the extension .bmp. This will insert the picture.

Click the second tool bar button on the left. This saves the document.

Click on the Root Node in the tree. It's the one that says Sample. Always do that because the new document will be created at the node that is highlighted. If it's not the root then it will become a branch of a node.

Repeat the above steps to create the following four more documents.

• Personal Information
• Computer
• Address & Phone Numbers
• Raw Materials Inventory

Type in text into each document and always type "example" somewhere in the text. We'll use the word "example" for searching later on. Your screen should now look something like this:

»