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|A |6Helpware |A ^1Home Inventory |Aͺ |6Helpware |A
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^Cby
^CRichard Wong

   ^1Note:  Since this program can create rather massive data files as you enter
^1lots of information, we suggest you copy it to your own disk -- or, better yet,
^1a hard drive -- before entering home inventory information. 


   The police and insurance companies all advise you to keep an inventory of 
your personal possessions.  Police investigators can use a list of serial 
numbers to help in recovering stolen property.  Also, insurance claim adjusters 
need itemized lists of stolen or destroyed items, and a list prepared while the 
items are still intact is more credible to them than one produced from memory 
afterward. 

   Many people know the benefits to doing a complete home inventory, but have 
never gotten around to doing it.  This program will help spur you to getting 
your things inventoried in an organized manner. 

   This program is a specialized database with fields to enter the relevant 
information about the things in your house, like their make and model, serial 
number, cost, date of purchase, and warranty expiration date.  You can do 
searches, using any of these fields, to output data to your screen or printer.  
(It is recommended that you make a complete printout of your inventory, and a 
backup on disk, and keep them in a safe deposit box, in case your computer is 
among the things lost or damaged!) 


^C^1INSTRUCTIONS

   Home Inventory is fully menu-driven, with "help" boxes on each screen.  
Hence, it shouldn't be difficult for you to figure out what to do at any point 
in the program.  (If you've used Software Indexer from BIG BLUE DISK #23, you'll 
find the user interface very familiar.)  However, here are some directions to 
help get you started. 

   The main menu has the following choices, which you can select by moving the
cursor up and down with the arrow keys and pressing ENTER to pick (or pressing
the first letter of the desired choice, then ENTER):

^CAdd Entries

   This is used to enter new data.  Use it to create records for all items in
your home, and to enter new acquisitions in the future.  When you select this, 
you will get a screen showing the names of the fields you must enter; enter them 
one at a time.  Some fields require you to enter information; others bring up a 
series of sub-menus to let you pick which multiple-choice items you want.  Above 
the fields in which you must enter information, there is an additional, fixed 
field named "Entry #."  The computer assigns this number to just this entry, to 
allow for easier processing.  Normally, entry numbers will start at 1 and be 
added in ascending sequence; but, if earlier entries are deleted, their numbers 
will be reused for later entries.  The entry number of a record never changes 
unless the entry is deleted. 

   The fields are as follows:

   1. ^1Name^0.  Enter the name of the item here (e.g. "Blender.")

   2. ^1Category^0.  This brings up a menu of choices relating to what sort of
item it is: appliance, electronics, furniture, etc.  Move up and down with the 
arrows and select with ENTER (as with the main menu).  Some of these choices 
have sub-menus associated with them to let you narrow down the exact nature of a 
program.  These are indicated by an arrow in the rightmost column of the menu 
line.  When you select such a choice (or press the right arrow key to enter the 
sub-menu), you are given the sub-choices, and should pick one in the same manner 
as you picked a choice on the other menus.  If you decide to return to the main 
menu to reconsider your original choice, use the left arrow to get back out of a 
submenu.  The choice at the top of a submenu will always be "<No subcategory>"; 
use this when none of the subcategories particularly applies, or you simply 
don't wish to select one because the main choice adequately describes the 
program. 

   3. ^1Location^0.  Here, the menu items correspond to the different rooms of your
house.  This menu has been set up with various standard rooms (bedroom, kitchen, 
etc.), but it and the other category menus can be customized using the "Edit 
Categories" option described below. 

   4. ^1Make & Model^0.  Enter the name of the manufacturer and model name of the 
item, like "Tandy 1000HX."

   5. ^1Serial Number^0.  Enter the series of numbers and/or letters that identify
your particular item; these may be imprinted on the back or bottom.  It's 
important to know this information should your things be stolen, since it lets 
the police identify recovered property as yours.  If an article has no serial 
number, it's a good idea to etch some identification, like your driver's license 
number, in some unobtrusive place.  Many police departments will lend you an 
etching tool to do this. 

   7. ^1Purchase Price^0.  Enter (in dollars and cents) how much the item cost when 
you acquired it.  This will help in valuing things for an insurance claim, and 
has the additional benefit of helping you track your household expenditures.

   8. ^1Purchase Date^0.  Enter the date you purchased the item, in the format
MM/DD/YYYY.  Two-digit years will be converted to 1900 + the year.

   9. ^1Warranty Expiration Date^0.  This helps you track your warranties.  Enter a 
date as you did for Purchase Date, or automatically specify a particular term 
from the purchase date by typing "+" followed by a number of days, or a number 
of months followed by "m", or a number of years followed by "y".  For instance, 
"+180d" indicates a 180-day warranty, "+3m" indicates three months, and "+1y" is 
one year.  If you purchase an extended warranty later, you can edit the field 
and type in the new expiration date. 

   10. ^1Comments^0.  Use this field for brief remarks about the item.

   When you're done entering a record, you will be prompted with a set of blank
fields for the next record.  Keep entering new records until you're finished, at
which time you can press ESC (or press ENTER with no input while in the "Name"
field) to return to the main menu.

^CSearch Entries

   This main menu option lets you retrieve selected records.  You can do some
pretty sophisticated searches here.  Searching takes place using Boolean
expressions.  These are logical expressions making use of connectors (called 
"logical operators") like equal signs, ANDs, and ORs.  For instance, you may 
wish to find items that you acquired on or after Jan. 1, 1988; this is done with 
the expression: "Purchase Date >= 01/01/1988." 

   Enter the search expression by selecting the field you're searching from the
given menu, then pick a logical operator (less than, greater than, etc.), and
finally, enter the value to which you're comparing it.  If the field you're 
searching is one of the multiple choice fields, you'll select the value from 
menus just as you did when entering these fields in a new entry.  There's a new 
item in the submenus called "<All Subcategories>"; if used, it matches records 
under the given major category regardless of which subcategory (if any) is 
selected. Conversely, picking "<No Subcategory>" matches only records for which 
the "<No Subcategory>" entry was picked. 

   After this, you have one more menu.  It has the choice, "<END>," which you 
use if you're done entering the search expression.  The other choices are "AND" 
and "OR", which can be used to add more conditions to the expression.  For 
instance, if you want to see all electronics and games, you can enter a compound 
condition to search for "Category = Electronics OR Category = Toys & Games."  If 
you want only electronic items costing over $1000, use "Category = Electronics 
AND Purchase Price > 1000."  You may link several expressions like this.  
(Note: Expressions are evaluated from left to right with no operator precedence; 
no "parentheses" are available to group ANDs and ORs.)

   Once you've selected the expression and terminated it with "<END>," you'll be
given an option to sort the selected records.  You can sort using any field.  
Then, if you choose to view the records on your screen, the records selected 
will be displayed one-at-a-time.  Go back and forth between them with the PgUp 
and PgDn keys.  If you decide you want to edit data, press the TAB key when 
you're viewing the record you want to edit; then, use the arrow keys to move to 
the field you want to change, and press TAB again to edit the data in that 
field. F10 saves your changes and gets back to viewing mode.  You can delete the 
entire record with the Del key. 

   While displaying records to the screen, you can also see some graphs showing 
the breakdown in total cost of things by category and location.  Type "G" to see 
these graphs.  While viewing graphs, P prints them, the space bar goes between 
the two graphs, and ESC returns to the record viewing mode.

   Alternatively, you can output the selected records to your printer, either in
an abbreviated form (with some detail left out) to save paper, or in its full
form as shown on the screen.

^CFast Search

   This option is similar to the Search Entries option above, but it lets you do
certain simple searches much more quickly due to built-in indexing.  Fast Search 
works only with the record number and the multiple-choice fields, and you can 
search only for entries equal to a given value, with no ANDs or ORs. 

^CList All Entries

   This will display all of your data entries.  The display is in the same
format as the results of the search options, and the same commands (to browse
and edit records) apply.

^CEdit Categories

   Here's where you can change the category menus to suit your needs.  You'll be
given a menu of the fields that have changeable choices; pick one, and its 
choice menu will pop up.  Use TAB to edit the choice menu; the right arrow gets 
you into the sub-menu for a given choice, which can be edited by pressing TAB 
when you're in it; and the Ins key will create a new submenu beneath the current 
option (if it doesn't already have one).  While you're editing a menu, you can 
move up and down within it, slide the current item to the right using the right 
arrow key, then move it up or down to a different part of the menu and place it 
back to the left to reorder the items.  The Del key will delete an item, and Ins 
adds a new one.  Note that, on main menus (as opposed to submenus), you can't 
delete the last item, which is named "Other" and provides a choice for items 
that don't fit into any other category. 

   If you delete a category, you can choose whether all data entries falling
into that category should themselves be deleted, or just reset to "Other."

^CZap All Entries

   This choice causes all your data to be deleted, so you can start over again
from scratch.  Note that changes in categories are unaffected; they're done
permanently when you make them.

^CQuit

   This is how you exit back to BIG BLUE DISK (or to DOS if you're running this 
on another disk as recommended).  There's no need to use a "Save" option to 
store your data before exiting, since changes are made to disk automatically as 
you go along.  By the same token, you don't need to "Load" data when you start 
up the program; all your data is automatically loaded. 

   To run this program outside ^1Big Blue Disk^0, type:  ^1HOMEINV^0.

DISK FILES THIS PROGRAM USES:
^FHOMEINV.EXE
^FHOMEINV.HLP
^FHOMEINV.DAT
^FHOMEINV.MNU
^FHNAMES.MNU
^FHPLACES.MNU
