DATA GENIE

DATABASE UTILITY
SINCLAIR 48K SPECTRUM

INSTRUCTION MANUAL

ASL - Audiogenic Software Ltd


DATA GENIE

INSTRUCTION MANUAL

The best way to learn about Data Genie is to  read  through  this
manual until you get to the section on loading  the  program.  At
that point you should load the program and read through the  rest
of this manual while sitting at your computer. In  this  way  you
can try out the various features  of  the  program  as  they  are
described, thus leading to a  better  understanding  of  how  the
program works.


CONTENTS

OVERVIEW						Page  2
DATA GENIE ORGANIZATION					Page  2
LOADING THE PROGRAM					Page  3
OPERATING INSTRUCTIONS					Page  3
	Pop-Up Menus					Page  3
	The Main Menu					Page  4
	Operation 1 - Setup File			Page  5
	Operation 2 - Entering Records			Page  7
	Operation 3 - Viewing and Editing Records	Page  9
	Operation 4 - Deleting Records			Page 10
	Operation 5 - Storage				Page 10
	Operation 6 - Reference - Loading and Searching	Page 12
	Operation 7 - Printing Records			Page 14
SAVING THE DATA GENIE PROGRAM TO MICRODRIVE		Page 15
DATA GENIE ERROR MESSAGES				Page 15
BREAKS							Page 16
EPILOGUE						Page 16

1


DATA GENIE

Overview

Data Genie is an innovative home database system for the Sinclair
48K ZX Spectrum. The program  employs  the  latest  user-friendly
control concepts. All of  its  facilities  are  controlled  by  a
series  of  "pop-up"  menus  which  appear  on  the  screen  when
required, and disappear when not required. In this  way  you  can
control the program through its  various  stages  by  using  only
three keys, or a  Kempston  joystick,  thus  avoiding  the  usual
"which key do I press now?" dilemma.

Data Genie is user definable. You can tailor the program to  your
own particular record keeping requirements.

Data Genie allows you to enter information, which  can  be  saved
onto cassette or Microdrive cartridge for long term  storage.  It
can then be loaded back in whenever you  need  to  refer  to  the
information. Also the information can be easily updated,  changed
or deleted as you wish. Data Genie can be used to keep all  sorts
of information - names and addresses, lists of collections,  club
memberships, in fact any application that requires  easy  storage
and recall of data.


Data Genie Organization

Data Genie is organised in terms of Records, and a collection  of
Records that are saved  together  on  a  cassette  or  Microdrive
cartridge is called a File. Data Genie allows you to have  up  to
146 Records in memory at any one  time.  Each  individual  Record
consists of a certain number of Fields. Let us look at an example
of a record. Supposing we use Data Genie to keep a list of  names
and addresses, then a complete Record could look  something  like
this ...

Example 1
name: johnny baxter
street: 342 acacia avenue
district: neasden
town: london
county:
postcode: n3 6ww
telephone: 01 987 0065

As you can see, the Record consists of 7 Fields,  each  having  a
Field Name. The Field Names are  name,  street,  district,  town,
county, postcode and telephone. The  Fields  themselves  are  the
blank  spaces  into  which  the  information,  e.g.  "342  acacia
avenue", has been entered. Data Genie is a versatile program - it
allows you to keep  Records  of  anything,  not  just  names  and
addresses. You can specify how many Fields you need,  what  their
Names will be, and how long  they  must  be  to  accommodate  the
information that you are entering. So the first thing you have to
do when you are about to use Data Genie is think  about  how  you
are going to organise the type of Records you wish to  keep;  how
many Fields do you need?; what is the Field Name of each  Field?;
how long do the Fields need to be in  order  to  accommodate  the
information?.

2


Loading the Program

The program loads into the 48K  spectrum  as  normal.  Place  the
program tape into the cassette deck, and  rewind  it.  Make  sure
your cassette leads are plugged in correctly. Press the LOAD key,
then follow it by two quotes so that on the screen you have ...

LOAD ""

and press ENTER. Then press the PLAY key on  the  cassette  deck.
The program should load. You will see the  program  title  appear
first and then the main program will load in. If  you  have   any
loading problems try experimenting with the volume level  on  the
cassette deck.  If  you  still  have  problems,  the  program  is
repeated on the other side, so turn the tape  over,  rewind,  and
try again. In the unlikely event of the tape not working at  all,
return it to your dealer for free replacement.


Operating Instructions

In this section we shall look at the various facilities  of  Data
Genie in the order in which you, using the program for the  first
time, are likely to want  to  use  them.  When  the  program  has
loaded, the first thing that happens is that you  are  asked  how
long the fields need to be, You can enter a number between 10 and
20 by typing the number and pressing ENTER. Say you  enter  20  -
this means that you are telling Data Genie to make each Field  20
characters long, i.e.  you  will  be  able  to  enter  up  to  20
characters' worth of information into  each  Field.  By  now  you
should have an idea of what each Field is going to be  used  for,
so you should be able to estimate how long the Fields  will  need
to be. When you have entered your length  of  Field,  the  screen
will clear and then you will be presented with the first  of  the
"pop-up" menus, the Main Menu. But first here's some general tips
about ...

Pop-Up Menus
All the "pop-up" menus in Data Genie are  operated  by  the  same
three keys. Every menu contains a list of options  and  a  Cursor
Line which you can move up and down with two keys,  so  that  you
position this Cursor Line  over  the  option  that  you  want  to
choose. The keys are ...
	6 = DOWN	and	7 = UP
Practice moving your Cursor line  up  and  down.  When  you  have
positioned the Cursor Line over the option  you  want,  you  make
your choice by using the ENTER  key  as  normal.  But,  for  menu
choices ONLY, you can also use the 8 key  instead  of  the  ENTER
key. This means that you  can  have  speedy  three-fingered  menu
operation using the 6, 7, and 8 keys.

If you have a joystick fitted via a Kempston joystick  interface,
Data Genie will automatically sense this and allow you to use the
joystick to control the menus. Push the stick forward to move the
cursor up, pull back to move down, and press the FIRE  button  to
select the option.

3


Back to the Main Menu. It will help to think of the Main Menu  as
like the trunk of a tree. The options in the Main Menu  are  like
branches off from the trunk, each taking  you  a  different  way.
Each option leads on to its own sub-menu, like  each  branch  has
smaller branches growing off from it. Going  through  the  menus,
you make certain things happen along the way until you  can't  go
any further - you have reached the tip of a twig! Then  you  have
to go backwards through the menus towards the  Main  Menu,  until
you come across another option that you wish to branch off on.


The Main Menu
The Main Menu comprises 10 options ...

SETUP FILE
ENTER RECORD
SEARCH
STORAGE
CLS
PRINT RECORD
EXIT
SINCLAIR SET
GENIE SET
SYSTEM RESET

Most of these options lead onto other menus, except where  stated
otherwise below ...

SETUP FILE - Is the one which we shall be using  first.  Choosing
this option leads you through the part of the program that allows
you to specify how many Fields you want,  and  what  their  Field
Names are to be.

ENTER RECORD - Is the part of the program in which you enter  the
information into the Fields that you specified  in  the  previous
option.

SEARCH - Is the crucial part of the program. The whole  point  of
this program is to allow you to keep  Records  which  are  easily
accessible, and the Search facility is the one which  allows  you
to access the Records. It enables you to very  quickly  find  the
information that you want to refer to, and also to  edit,  update
or delete certain parts as required.

STORAGE - Is the part of the program which deals with the saving,
verification, and loading in of your Files. It also allows you to
specify either cassette or Microdrive storage.

CLS - Stands for Clear Screen. This option does not lead onto any
other menus. Its function is quite simple: after a  lot  of  menu
operations you may find that the screen is cluttered by  bits  of
old menu display that you aren't using. If you  select  CLS  from
the Main Menu, the screen will clear, and the Main Menu  will  be
redisplayed, but without all the spurious clutter.

PRINT RECORD - Allows you to specify certain or  all  Records  in
memory, and print them out to your screen or to your ZX Printer.

4


EXIT - Does not lead onto any other menus. When you have finished
using the program, you can choose Exit  on  the  Main  Menu.  The
program will stop and the message:-
9 STOP statement,28,2    will be displayed on the bottom line  of
the screen. You can then load another program, or if you selected
Exit by mistake, you can continue with Data Genie by pressing the
CONT  (Continue) key and ENTER.

SINCLAIR  SET
and GENIE SET - These two options do not lead to any other menus.
They allow you to choose between alternative character sets. When
you  have  loaded  the  program  and  it  is  running   it   will
automatically use the normal Sinclair  characters  that  you  are
probably familiar with. However, we have provided the Data  Genie
character set as an alternative so that you can choose  whichever
is easiest on your eyes. So to choose the  Data  Genie  character
set, select Genie Set from the Main Menu, and to get back to  the
normal character set, just select Sinclair Set.

SYSTEM RESET - When you have finished entering Records you should
save them onto cassette or Microdrive cartridge, and verify  that
they were saved properly. Suppose that you  then  wish  to  enter
some more Records of a different type, using different Fields and
Field Names. System Reset allows you to do this - it  clears  the
memory of all the records that are in there, and then  takes  you
back to the very beginning of the program. Because it clears  the
memory, it incorporates a safeguard so that you  don't  wipe  out
all your Records by mistake. When you have selected System Reset,
you will be asked to confirm your choice. Press Y for Yes  to  go
through with the Reset, or press N for No if you don't want to.

Now that you know what each option in the Main Menu is about, let
us start using Data Genie.


Operation 1 - Setup File
When using Data Genie for the first time,  the  first  thing  you
will have to do is specify how many Fields  you  want,  and  what
their  Names  are  going  to  be.  (Remember,  you  have  already
specified the length of the fields at the start of the  program.)
You are now about to choose your first option from the Main Menu.
Position your Cursor Line over the Setup File option,  and  press
the 8 key (or ENTER).  The  Setup  File  menu  will  now  appear,
overlaying the Main Menu. The menu title,  i.e.  Setup  File,  is
written at the bottom of the screen - in fact you will find  that
Data Genie always displays there the title of the particular menu
that you are  using  at  the  time.  These  are  the  Setup  File
options ...

5


EXIT
NO. FIELDS
ENTER FIELDS
CLEAR FIELDS
SYSTEM RESET

EXIT - Selecting Exit takes you back to the Main  Menu.  In  fact
when you select Exit on any menu (except the Main one) it has the
effect of taking you back to the previous menu.

NO. FIELDS - Allows you to select how many Fields you want up  to
a maximum of 15.

ENTER FIELDS - Allows you to give each Field  a  Name  up  to  10
characters in length.

CLEAR FIELDS - Clears Out all the Field Names if you  decide  you
wish to rename them all.

SYSTEM RESET - Allows you to change the length of the  Fields  if
you decide that the figure you entered at the very beginning  was
wrong. It has the same effect as the System  Reset  in  the  Main
Menu, i.e. it takes you  right  back  to  the  beginning  of  the
program and asks you for the Data  Length  again.  This  has  the
effect of wiping all Records from memory, so be careful when  you
use this option.

The first thing to do is specify the number of Fields, so  select
No.  Fields.  A  purple  sub-menu  will  appear,  containing  two
options, Exit and 0 Fields. Select the 0 Fields option, and enter
the number of Fields that you want  in  the  Input  line  at  the
bottom of the screen, and press ENTER. Let's suppose that you are
setting up a name and address File as in Example 1.  That  has  7
Fields, so we'll enter 7. You will see that the 0  Fields  option
has changed to 7 Fields, and the Cursor Line is  now  waiting  on
the Exit option. Press 8 or ENTER to select Exit,  and  you  will
return to the Setup File menu.
The next thing we want to do is specify the Names of the  Fields,
so select the Enter Fields option. The Enter Fields display  will
appear. This menu has two choices, Exit and  Edit  Line,  at  the
top, but below you will see a white block representing the  space
where we are going to enter our Field Names. Then underneath  the
white block there is a grey block, which represents the  other  8
out of the 15 Fields that we could have  had.  Move  your  Cursor
Line down to the first blank line below the Edit Line option, and
press 8 or ENTER. You can now enter the first Field Name  in  the
Input Line at the bottom. So enter "name" and  press  ENTER.  You
will see that the word "name" appears  in  the  line  where  your
Cursor Line is. Now move the Cursor Line to the  next  line  down
and repeat the procedure for the next Field Name, i.e.  "street".
In this way you can continue adding Field Names  until  you  have
used up the number of Fields  that  you  selected.  Please  note,
however, that Data Genie will not  accept  Field  Names  over  10
characters in length.

6


If you have entered your Field Names and then you  discover  that
you made a mistake, just move the Cursor Line over the line where
the mistake is and press 8 or ENTER. You can  then  re-enter  the
proper Field Name in the same way. If you want to add  or  delete
any Field Names, you should select the Edit Line option. A  small
red menu display will pop up on the right of the screen with five
options ...

EXIT
INSERT
DELETE
UP
DOWN

You now have two menus on the screen at the same  time,  the  red
Edit Line Menu and the yellow Enter Fields menu. In the red  menu
the Up and Down options are used to control the position  of  the
Cursor Line in the yellow menu so that  you  can  place  it  over
where you wish to insert or delete a Field Name. So position your
yellow Cursor Line by selecting the Up or Down options in the red
menu, and when you have positioned it, you can then move the  red
Cursor Line up to Insert or Delete. If you  choose  Delete,  then
the line underneath the Cursor  Line  will  be  deleted.  If  you
choose Insert, then everything below the Cursor  Line  will  move
down by one line, leaving you a gap  into  which  you  can  enter
another Field Name by Exiting from the red Edit Line menu back to
the yellow Enter Fields menu, and entering the Field Name as  you
did before.
Please Note - Data Genie will not  allow  you  to  have  a  Field
without a Name. You must give a Name to every Field.
You have now set up your Fields.  You  have  specified	how  many
Fields there are, how long they are,  and  you  have  given  them
their Names. You can now Exit from the yellow  menu,  which  will
take you back to the light blue Setup File menu. Exit  from  that
one too, and you will find that you are back on  the  Main  Menu.
You are now ready to enter some Records.


Operation 2 - Entering Records
From the Main Menu select the Enter Records  option.  The  purple
Enter Records menu will pop up, containing these options ...

EXIT
ENTER RECORD
VIEW RECORDS
DELETE RECORDS

EXIT - As usual takes you back to the previous menu.

ENTER RECORD - Allows you  to  enter  the  information  into  the
Fields.

VIEW RECORDS - Allows you to look, one by one,  through  all  the
Records that you have entered.

DELETE RECORDS - Allows you to delete Records from memory.

The three lines  below  these  options  are  the  Current  Record
counter, which displays the Record number of the last Record that
was Viewed or Searched for;  the  Total  Records  counter,  which

7

keeps track of the total number of Records in memory at the  time
- you will see  the  figure  change  as  you  keep  entering  new
Records. and the Maximum Records indicator, which tells  you  how
many Records you can enter. This figure varies according  to  the
number you entered for the length of Field. If your Fields are 20
characters long, you can have up  to  73  Records,  and  if  your
Fields are 10 characters long,  you  can  have  as  many  as  146
Records! So the shorter the Fields,  the  more  records  you  can
have.

You  are  now  at  the  stage  where  you  want  to  enter   your
information. Select Enter Record from  the  menu.  What  happens?
Your screen goes blank and then in the top left hand  corner  the
Name of your first Field is displayed. At the same  time  in  the
Input Line at the  bottom  of  the  screen  the  flashing  cursor
appears, waiting for you to type in your data. Above  the  cursor
you will see a black line. This  corresponds  in  length  to  the
length of Field that you specified earlier. It provides a  visual
indication of how much room you have in which to enter your data.
So type in your data, taking care not to exceed the length of the
Field, and press ENTER. Your data will appear next to  the  Field
Name at the top, and the cursor will appear again at the  bottom,
waiting for you to enter data into the second Field. Carry on  in
this manner until you have filled all the Fields.  You  have  now
entered a complete Record.

After you have filled in the last Field of a Record,  the  Record
will be logged in memory, and the menu will pop  up  again.  Just
select the Enter Record option again, and you can go on to  enter
as many Records as you  are  allowed  according  to  the  Maximum
Records  indicator.  But  first,  some   hints   about   entering
Records ...

When entering the information into the Fields, you may find  that
it is best to use  lower  case  letters  only,  i.e.  no  capital
letters. Why? - Well, supposing you were to command Data Genie to
search through the Records for a particular  name  or  word.  for
example - baxter, but you had entered it into the Field as Baxter
with a capital B. Data Genie, clever though it is, would  not  be
able to find that Record. Thus you will find that  when  entering
the information it pays to be consistent in your use (or  disuse)
of capital letters.

If you wish to leave a Field blank, you can do so,  but  only  by
entering spaces. If  you  hit  the  ENTER  key  without  entering
anything, you will find that it  takes  you  back  to  the  Enter
Records menu. This is provided as a way of exiting from a  Record
if you need to, for instance if you see  that  you  have  made  a
mistake in one of the previous Fields. A Record  is  only  logged
into memory after you have entered the last Field, so if  you  go
back to the menu half way through a Record, any information  that
you may have entered into that Record will be forgotten,  so  you
will have to enter it again.

8


Operation 3 - Viewing and Editing Records
When you have entered all the Records you want, you can  look  at
them by selecting the View Records option. As soon as you  select
View Records, the screen goes blank and then the  Current  Record
(i.e. the Record with the number displayed in the Current  Record
counter on the previous menu) will appear, and  then  the  purple
View Records menu pops  up  on  the  right.  The  Current  Record
counter will normally be on no. 1, until  you  use  the  View  or
Search facilities; then it displays the number of the last Record
Viewed or Searched for. Also displayed at the bottom is the Field
counter, which is used during  editing.  The  View  Records  menu
contains the following options    

EXIT
EDIT UP
EDIT DOWN
REC UP
REC DOWN
EDIT REC
LIST REC
LOOK

EXIT - As usual takes you back to the previous menu.

EDIT UP - Is used to select which Field you wish to edit.

EDIT DOWN - Also used to select which Field you wish to Edit.

REC UP - Allows you to look at the Record  previous  to  the  one
currently displayed.

REC DOWN - Allows you  to  look  at  the  Record  after  the  one
currently displayed.

EDIT REC - Allows you to make alterations to the Field  that  you
have selected by Edit Up and Down and which is displayed  in  the
Field counter at the bottom.

LIST REC - Allows you to specify the Record number of the  Record
you wish to look  at,  and  gets  that  Record  from  memory  and
displays it.

LOOK - You  may  find  that  the  View  Records  menu  itself  is
obscuring part of the Record that you wish to have a look at.  If
you select Look, the menu will disappear until you press a key.

You can use the View Records options to look at the Records  when
you have just entered them to make sure they are correct. You can
also use it at a later  date  when  you  want  to  refer  to  the
information in your File. The  easiest  way  of  looking  at  the
Records is to use the Rec Up and Rec Down options  to  scroll  up
and down through the Records. For example every time  you  select
Rec Down, it will display the Record after the one  currently  on
screen. In this way you can go through all the Records in memory.
Another way you can refer to  Records  is  to  use  the  List-Rec
option. Just specify the number of the Record you  wish  to  look
at, and Data Genie will display it for you instantly.

9


If you find when looking through the records  that  you  wish  to
alter some of the data, this is what you do. Keep the Record that
you want to alter on screen, and see  which  Field  contains  the
data that you want to alter. Then, looking at the  Field  counter
at the bottom, using the Edit Up and Edit  Down  options,  scroll
through the  Fields  until  the  Field  that  needs  altering  is
displayed in the Field counter. Then select the Edit Rec option -
the flashing Cursor will appear in the Input Line.  You  can  now
re-enter the data into that Field and press ENTER. The  new  data
will replace the old data.


Operation 4 - Deleting Records
This is the Delete Records menu ...

EXIT
DELETE CUR/REC
OTHER RECORD
SYSTEM RESET

There are three ways of deleting records....

1 - If you find when looking through the Records that you wish to
delete a Record, then, using the  View  Records  menu,  find  the
Record you want to delete and leave it on the  screen  while  you
Exit from that menu back to the Enter Records menu. Because  that
Record was the one you Viewed last, its number will be stored  in
the Current Record counter. Now  you  should  select  the  Delete
Records  option.  The  red  Delete  Records  menu   will   appear
containing the options listed above. Select  the  DELETE  CUR/REC
option, and this will delete the Record whose number  is  in  the
Current Record counter.

2 - Another way of deleting Records is to use  the  OTHER  RECORD
option. To use this you must  already  know  the  number  of  the
Record you wish to delete.  When  you  select  this  option,  the
Cursor will appear in the Input Line, waiting for  you  to  enter
the number. Just type it in and press ENTER, and that Record will
be deleted. When a Record is deleted, all subsequent records  are
moved up one place to fill the gap.

3 - If you decide that you want to  delete  ALL  the  Records  in
memory, you can choose the SYSTEM RESET option. This is the  same
as the System Reset option in the main menu, i.e.  it  wipes  the
memory of all Records.

CAUTION - Once a Record is deleted it has gone for  good  (unless
you still have it stored on tape). So be sure you really mean  it
before you delete any Records!


Operation 5 - Storage
Once you have entered all the Records, and have carried  out  all
the Editing and Deleting that you want,  you  should  store  your
File of Records onto cassette  or  Microdrive  cartridge.  To  do
this, go back through the menus to the Main Menu and  select  the
Storage  option.  The  Storage  menu  will  pop  up  with   seven
options ...

10


EXIT
SAVE RECORDS
LOAD RECORDS
VERIFY RECORDS
MICRODRIVE
CASSETTE
NAME:	DATA

EXIT - As usual

SAVE RECORDS - Allows you to store your File of Records  on  tape
or Microdrive cartridge.

LOAD RECORDS - When you wish to refer to a  File  that  you  have
Saved, you can use this option to load the  Records  into  memory
from the tape or Microdrive cartridge.

VERIFY RECORDS - As soon as you have Saved your Records, you  can
use this option to check that they have been Saved properly.

MICRODRIVE
and CASSETTE - These options allow you to  select  which  storage
medium you wish to use. The One that is in use  at  any  time  is
highlighted in  black.  To  change  to  the  Other  medium,  just
position the cursor over it and select in the normal way.  PLEASE
NOTE - If you have  a  multi-Microdrive  system,  all  Microdrive
operations in Data Genie must be carried out on Drive 1.

NAME - When you save or load a File, you must specify a Filename.
The Filename is preset as "DATA", but you can easily change it to
whatever name you want by selecting this option. The Cursor  will
appear in the Input Line at the bottom of  the  screen.  You  can
then enter any name of up to 8 characters, and press  ENTER.  The
new name will appear in the menu where "DATA" used  to  be.  This
Filename will be used when you carry  out  a  Saving  or  Loading
operation.

So, you are now ready to store your File.  The  first  thing  you
must do is give it a name. If you want to  call  it  "DATA"  then
leave the name as it is. Remember, however, that if you are going
to save more than One file Onto a single cassette  or  Microdrive
cartridge, you will have to give each of those files a  different
name. It is probably best to give the file a name that relates to
the information in it. To change the name, use the Name option as
described above.

The next thing to do is specify the storage  medium  by  choosing
either cassette or Microdrive. You can tell which of the  two  is
currently in operation by the black highlight. You are then ready
to go to the Save Records option.

SAVING TO CASSETTE - If you are using  cassette,  make  sure  you
have a blank cassette in your cassette deck, and the saving  lead
is wired up correctly. Rewind the cassette, but wind it  forwards
past the leader tape. Select the Save Records Option, and a small
menu will pop up as a safeguard in case you selected Save Records
by mistake. Select the Save Data option  from  this  small  menu,
start the tape and press a key. The File is saved in  two  parts,
first the Records themselves and then  the  Field  formats.  This
means that you will have to "Press a Key" once to save the  first

11


part, and again to save the second part. So when saving a File it
is essential that you sit by the Spectrum, ready so that you  can
"Press a Key" the second time when  the  "Press  a  Key"  message
appears on the screen. When the Save is complete you will be told
to "Stop the Tape" and you can then press a key to continue.

SAVING TO MICRODRIVE  CARTRIDGE  -  Put  a  formatted  Microdrive
cartridge into the Microdrive. You should use  a  cartridge  that
has at least 22K of space left on it otherwise you  will  get  an
error and have to repeat the operation. Select the  Save  Records
option, and again you will get a  small  safeguard  menu.  Select
Save Data and you will be asked "Do you wish to Replace a file or
Save a new one? (R or S)". To replace a File you must  make  sure
that the current Filename is the same as the Name of the existing
File. So type either R or S and press ENTER, then press a key  to
carry Out the Save. When the Save has been  carried  Out,  select
EXIT to continue.

When storing your Files on cassette it is best to use short tapes
with just one File on each side,  rather  than  putting  lots  of
Files on one long tape. You will find that in this way you  don't
have to keep searching  through  the  tape  to  find  your  File.
Whether you are using cassette or Microdrive, it is always a good
idea to label the cassette or cartridge so that you know what  is
on there.

After doing a Save, it is always a good idea to Verify the  File.
So, if you are using cassette, rewind it first,  or  if  you  are
using Microdrive, leave the cartridge in the drive.  Then  select
Verify Records from the Storage menu.  Again  there  is  a  small
safeguard menu in case you selected the  option  by  mistake,  so
select the Verify Data option from this small menu, then press  a
key and, if using cassette, start the tape. What happens is  that
the File is loaded back into the Spectrum and checked against the
File in memory. If it does not  Verify,  an  error  message  will
appear at the bottom of the screen. If  that  happens,  then  you
have to restart the program by entering the command ...
	GO TO 10	[ENTER]
This will take you back to the start of  the  program,  but  will
leave the data in memory intact. You should then try  Saving  and
Verifying your File until it Verifies correctly. You can tell  if
it has Verified correctly by the absence of error messages.

PLEASE NOTE - Verification of a File should be  done  immediately
after Saving it, because if you go back and do a Search or a View
in between, it can alter pointers in memory; this would mean that
when you came to Verify the File you  would  get  a  verification
error even if the File was Saved correctly.


Operation 6 - Reference - Loading and Searching
So, you now have a File Saved, Verified  and  labelled.  At  some
later date you will want  to  refer  to  the  information  stored
there. The first thing to do is, of course,  load  and  run  Data
Genie. Choose the Storage option from the Main Menu, and from the
Storage menu choose the correct storage medium, then set the Name
to the same name as the File you wish to load, and finally select
the Load Records option. Get  your  File  cassette  or  cartridge

12


ready in the cassette deck or Microdrive, Again there is a little
safeguard menu, so select the Load Data option, press a key  and,
if using  tape,  start  the  tape.  If  your  File  doesn't  load
properly, you will get an error message, and  you  will  have  to
restart the program by typing ...
	RUN	[ENTER]
and try loading the File again.

When your File has loaded correctly, press a key to get  back  to
the Main Menu. Then select the Search  option,  The  screen  will
clear and the Search menu will pop up on the right, and a list of
the Field Names will appear on the left, The Search menu has only
three options ...

EXIT
SEARCH
CONT SEARCH

... and the Current Record counter at the bottom,

EXIT - As usual.

SEARCH - Allows you to specify a string (i.e.  a  name  or  word)
that you wish to Search for, and displays  the  first  Record  it
finds that contains that string.

CONT SEARCH  -  Allows  you  to  keep  Searching  for  subsequent
occurrences of the same string.

So select Search from the Search menu. The flashing  cursor  will
appear at the bottom in the Input Line. You  can  now  enter  the
word or name that you wish to search for. The maximum  number  of
characters that you can specify is the  same  as  the  length  of
Field that you specified earlier, and is represented by the black
line above the Input Line. So do not exceed the  length  of  this
black line. So type in the characters  and  press  ENTER.  Within
seconds Data Genie will find and display the whole of the  Record
that contains the first occurrence of that string,  and  displays
in the Field counter the Name  of  the  Field  where  the  string
occurs. (It also displays the View Records menu in case you  wish
to do any editing or scroll through the Records.)
Why does it  display  the  first  occurrence?  Well,  the  Search
procedure starts from Record  number  1,  and  goes  through  the
Records in numerical order till it finds the specified string. So
say, for example, you are Searching a name and  address  File  to
find the address of John Smith. If you specify  "Smith"  as  your
Search string, you may have a few Smiths in your  File,  and  the
first occurrence that Data Genie finds may not  be  the  one  you
want. But if you specify "John Smith" then it will go straight to
the one you want (unless, of course, you happen to have more than
one John Smith on your File). So when specifying a Search string,
it pays to be as specific as you can if you want to get the  File
that you are looking for immediately. However, if you did specify
just "Smith" you could carry on Searching through the Records  by
using the Cont Search option. So let us  suppose  that  you  have
found the first occurrence of "Smith" and it is not the  one  you
want. Just go back to the Search menu and select Cont Search. You
will then have to enter "Smith" again in the Input Line, but this

13


time it will find the second occurrence of "Smith".  If  this  is
still not the one you want, you can select Cont Search again  and
repeat the procedure until you find the one you want.

Please Note ...
1 - Remember what we told you earlier about using Capital letters
when entering the Records. When you search  for  a  Record,  make
sure that you enter your Search string in the same way  that  you
entered it into the Record.
2 - When you specify your Search string, the string  must  be  of
characters from one Field only. For instance, if  your  name  and
address File had two separate Fields for first name and  surname,
then you would have "John" in the first name Field and "Smith" in
the surname Field.  If  you  then  try  to  find  the  Record  by
specifying "John Smith" as your Search string, Data  Genie  would
not be able to find it because  the  string  contains  characters
from two different Fields. This should be taken into account when
you design your Fields.
3 - Your Search string must be longer than one character  -  Data
Genie will display "Length Error" if you try to  enter  just  one
character. In practise, a Search string of one character would be
of  little  value  in  finding  the  Record  you  want,  so  this
limitation should not present any problems.
4 - The View Records menu which appears after each Search is  the
same as the one described above in Operation 3.  The  Search  and
the  View  facilities  together  make  Data  Genie  an  amazingly
versatile  reference  system  for   most   information   handling
applications.


Operation 7 - Printing Records
The Print Records option on the main menu allows  you  to  either
print the Records to the screen, or  hardcopy  them  via  the  ZX
Printer. If you select the Print Records  option  from  the  Main
Menu, you will get the blue Print Records menu ...

EXIT
PRINT CUR/REC
OTHER
MORE THAN ONE
PRINTER
SCREEN

... plus the Current Record counter at the bottom.

The first thing to do is decide whether you want to print to  the
screen or to the printer. You can choose by selecting one of  the
two bottom options, Printer or Screen. When you first come to the
menu you will see that "Screen" is reversed out  in  black.  That
means that Screen is already  selected.  If  you  move  the  blue
Cursor line down to Printer and select that, then  you  will  see
"Printer" is now reversed out,  and  now  all  printout  will  be
routed to the printer. You can then choose which Records you want
printed out by using the other menu options ...

EXIT - As normal.

PRINT CUR/REC -  Will  print  out  the  Record  whose  number  is
displayed in the Current   Record  counter.  What  will  normally
happen in practice is that when referring to your File, you  will

14


have found the Record you want  by  Searching  or  Viewing.  This
means that the Record number will be stored in the Current Record
counter, so that when you want to print it out you don't need  to
remember the Record number, you can just select this  option  and
it will be printed out on the screen or printer. When  you  print
to the screen, the Record will stay there until you press a key.

OTHER - Choose this Option if you wish to print  a  record  other
than the Current Record, You must already know the number of  the
Record you want to print, and the Cursor will wait in  the  Input
Line for you to enter it. So type in the number, press ENTER, and
the Record will be printed.

MORE THAN ONE - This option allows  you  to  specify  two  Record
numbers, and will print out every Record  between  and  including
those two numbers. When you select the option,  the  Cursor  will
wait in the Input Line for the first number, so enter  the  first
number (FROM), then enter the other number (TO). Of  course,  you
must specify the lower number first and  then  the  higher.  When
printing to the screen, each Record will stay on the screen until
you press a key before displaying the  next.  You  can  use  this
option to print out all the Records in memory.


Saving the Data Genie Program to Microdrive

If you have a Microdrive system, it is likely that you will  want
to transfer the Data Genie program onto Microdrive cartridge.  We
have included a routine that allows you  to  do  this,  Load  the
program from cassette as normal and go to the Main Menu. From the
Main Menu choose the Exit option. This will break the program and
allow you to type into the  input  line  at  the  bottom  of  the
screen. Put a blank cartridge into the Microdrive and type ...
	GO TO 9500	[ENTER]
The Save routine will then take place. PLEASE  NOTE  -  the  Save
routine formats the cartridge, thus erasing anything  that  might
be already on it, so make sure that the cartridge you  are  using
is either blank, or does not contain programs or  data  that  you
wish to keep!

To load the program  from  your  Microdrive,  first  give  a  NEW
command, or  switch  the  computer  off  and  then  on,  put  the
cartridge in the drive, and enter ...
	RUN	[ENTER]
The program will then load from the Microdrive and autorun.


Data Genie Error Messages

The following error messages are additional to the normal  system
error messages, and may occur if you do something wrong ...

0 RECORD ERROR - Occurs if you try to View or Search or Delete  a
Record when there aren't any Records in memory.

15


O FIELDS ERROR - Occurs if you try  to  View,  Enter,  or  Delete
Records when you haven't specified your Fields.

DATA GENIE IS FULL - Occurs if you try to enter more Records than
the amount given in the Max Records indicator.

LENGTH ERROR - Occurs if you try to enter just one  character  or
too many characters into the Input Line when doing a Search.

When one of these error messages is displayed, the program  waits
for you to press a key to continue.


Breaks

We have tried to make the program as foolproof as  possible,  but
if it should break for any reason, you should be able to get back
into it without losing the data in memory by entering the
	GO TO 10
command.


Epilogue

You should now know all you need to about  how  to  operate  Data
Genie. The concept of operating by pop-up menus is a very new one
and may be unfamiliar at first, but once you have mastered it you
will find Data Genie a lot easier to Operate than  old  fashioned
home databases.
Any comments or criticisms of Data Genie will be  welcomed.  Send
them to Audiogenic Software Ltd., P. 0. Box 88,  Reading,  Berks,
England.


DATA GENIE program written by Andre Powell
Version 2 by Richard Desforges
Manual by D. A. Henry Smithson.


-- End of File

