Tips and Suggestions

1. Never delete any subjects, authors, or locations that have titles attached. This will leave the title with a link to nothing and might create strange behavior in your database. Since these can only be deleted from their own primary Browse Windows, it is an easy matter to determine if any links remain before deleting them.
2. Any change to a location, subject, or author is immediately reflected in the entire database.
3. Any Linkage to a subject or author may be deleted from the Link to Subjects or Link to Authors Tabs on the Title Form without affecting that author or subject elsewhere.
4. The title Text field is a good place to put information (especially if this is used for a used-book store) on condition, date of purchase, edition, and whether signed or not. It is immediately viewable on all Browse Windows except the Author Browse.
5. Always work out the primary location names clearly ahead of time. If the books are not yet in their permanent location, this data entry can wait until later.
6. The data entry fields are pretty well self-explanatory, but one deserves a special mention. The Item entry field is there to provide a little more location data if needed. For example, if one of your primary locations was Master Bedroom, and you had three bookcases with 7 shelves each, you might call them A1-A7, B1-B7, and C1-C7. You have three characters (including spaces) available for this feature.
7. Only enter the data that is important for your needs. ISBN numbers and library codes are irrelevant for most people's uses as is much of the publishing information. Remember - keep it simple!
8. Keywords are listed in most modern texts or you can create your own to suit your specific needs. These can be as simple or complex as needed and might include appropriate subgroups, like History as the first entry, Middle Eastern as the second, and Arabic or Jewish as the third. This not only makes it easier to find, but also it is easier to see what it's about when the key words are so descriptive. For a genealogical library you might use last names and locations as keywords. Experiment.
9. The numbers of items possible in each data file is more than the number of books published. Only the hard-disk space and the abilities of your processor limit the capacity
10. Us the standard alpha library strategy for listing titles - leave off any "A," "An," or "The" that start the title and put it on the end after a comma or in parentheses. This will make lookups on titles much easier.
11. Never use any spaces when entering library codes or ISBN numbers. If you are going to use LC for Library of Congress codes, always use it.

Documentation for Library Manager V. 1.0