Instructions

In the entryfield near the top of the form, enter the string to be searched and push the Enter key. Don’t use quotes unless they are part of the expression you are looking for. Neither should you use quotes if your string contains a space. The search engine is programmed to know that this space is part of the string to search for.

Use only a comma to separate differents strings; any other sign (semi-colon, period, slash, etc.) will be interpreted as part of the string to search for. For example, if you are looking for the strings “calculated field” and “grid,” they should be entered this way: 

Words with special capitalization (like “dBulletin” and “dBASE”) do not need any special precautions. For example, you will get the same results whether you type “dbase,” “dBASE” or “DBASE.”

The Hit Counter

The search result includes a count of the number of time the search string is found in a document. This hit counter stops counting after 50 instances of the string are found in a document (however, all instances of the search string are highlighted). When two or more strings are entered, the hit counter sums for all words, but again stops after 50 instances are found.

Sometimes the search string is contained inside an HTML tag. The hit counter includes this case, which can make the count appear inaccurate. We have not controlled for this anomaly in a effort to avoid slowing the search.

The hit counter can be disabled from the Options menu, which can speed up search.

Sub-Folders to search

The Sub-folder to be Searched option lets you choose which folders in the Knowelegebase are searched. For example, if you want to exclude the dBulletin from your search, open the Sub-folder selector and uncheck the dBulletin folder. On the other hand, you can search only the dBulletin by checking this option and unchecking the “beg”, “adv”, and “int” options and their respective sub-folders.

If you have the compete Knowledgebase installed you will find that there are three versions of the Tutorial. You will rarely, if ever, want to search all three folders.

Version 2.0 of the dBASE KnolwdgeBase Search Tools does not search the Visual dBASE 5 Knowledgebase documents. These are plain text files and are found in the subfolder named “v5_docs.”

Using Custom Profiles

A “Default” Profile is created the first time that the Sub-folder to be searched is opened. This default profile can be modified and saved by to the user but it can't be deleted. Additional profiles can be created and new profiles can be deleted. To create a new profile, enter a unique name in the Selector Profile combobox, select the folders and subfolders to include in this profile, and then click the Save button. To modify an existing profile, choose the profile name from the Selector Profile combobox, select the folders to add or deselect the folders to remove from the profile, and then click the Save button.

When the application is closed, the currently selected profile is remembered and reloaded next time the application is run.

Include All Folders

When this option is checked, all the subfolders in the dBASE Knowledgebase are included in the search regardless of which folders are marked in the Sub-folder Selector form. If this option is unchecked, then only sub-folders selected with the Sub-folder Selector form are searched. The menu item Include All Folders always has precedence over the folders selected with the Sub-folder Selector form.

Adding New Documents

New documents (or non-Knowledgebase documents) can be searched by adding them to the dBASE Knowledgebase folder. For example, suppose you want to search the online learning materials at Michael Nuwer’s Web site. Create a new folder named “Tutorials” under the Knowledgebase and unpack the HTML archive (available at the Web site) into this subfolder. You can use a subfolder for each archive or you can use a single folder for all the archives.

Use the Sub-folders Selector form to include the new subfolders in the search. A new profile for these documents can also be created.