Author: Clive Whitear
Date: January 18th  1999
Version: ER5 release
DATA
0x10000086
Data: Quick start
database
Data is the EPOC machine's database. The files created in it are compatible with PC database applications; they can be copied to any PC, using EPOC CONNECT, and worked on there.
Use Data to store information as you would in a card index. The ready-made Data file contains “labels” suitable for storing information as a "knowledgebase" database. Data files can be created for any other type of information, e.g. recipes, CD lists, train times etc.
When Data is first used, or a new Data file created, you'll see an empty knowledge database, with labels for Name/subject, URL and Notes.
•	"URL" means a Web page or Web site.
You can add new entries to the database straight away. To do this, tap New entry on the Toolbar. Type in the first entry, press Save to add it, then add further entries in the same way. Press Close when you’ve finished.
You may want to use the database for another type of information. If you do, you may need to customise the labels for the type of information you want to record. To do this, use Change labels on the Tools menu to set up suitable labels before adding any entries.
To sort entries, e.g., alphabetically by Name/subject, select Sort by label on the Tools menu.
Data has two views: press List to see entries as a list, or Cards to see individual entries.
To move between entries in the Card view:
•	Tap on Prev and Next.
•	Press the Enter and Shift+Enter keys.
In the List view press:
•	The up and down arrow keys to move up and down the list.
•	The left and right arrow keys to see columns not currently shown.
•	In the List view information can be sorted just as a table of information might be sorted.
Use the List view for viewing information as a table, where information can be sorted quickly and easily.
Adding entries (Data)
add entry new entry new card new page
1.	Tap New entry on the Toolbar.
2.	Type in the information next to the appropriate labels.
3.	Tap on the line you want to type on or use the up and down arrow keys to move between the lines.
While adding the entry the text can be formatted and objects inserted, such as a picture from the EPOC Sketch program.
4.	When the entry is complete, press Save.
5.	Add the next entry in the same way, or press Close to finish.
New entries are added to the end of the Data file. To place new entries in alphabetical order, use Sort by label on the Tools menu.
Changing entries (Data)
edit entry
To change an entry, e.g. to update a web address, find and select it in the Card or List view and then press Edit entry on the Toolbar.
Tap on the line for the information to be changed, or use the up and down arrow keys to move to it and edit the text as required.
•	To change the labels for the entry or add new ones, first update the labels using Change labels on the Tools menu, then change the entry if required.
Deleting entries (Data)
undo delete entry remove entry erase entry
To delete an entry, find it in the Card or List view and use Delete entry on the Edit menu.
If you accidentally delete an entry, use Undo delete on the Edit menu to get it back again.
Finding entries (Data)
wild cards strings searching wildcards search esc unknown
To search for entries in the Card or List view type a "search clue" in the 'Find:' box and press Enter.
•	Type a ? for a single unknown letter or a * for any number of unknown letters (known as "wildcards").
The first matching entry is shown, with the search word highlighted.
Press Enter to go to the next match, or move directly to another entry until the one you want is displayed.
To remove the search clue:
•	Press Esc to go to the Find: box, then type a new clue, or press Del.
To find entries using any of the last 5 search clues you typed in:
•	Tap on the menu button, then tap on the clue you want to use, or
•	Press Tab, use the up and down arrow keys to select the clue and press Enter.
Search clues
This is a piece of text contained within the entry; e.g. 'Chicken', and can be any part of the text in the entry. Data looks for an exact match for the text entered as a search clue, disregarding differences in case. So if the search clue 'cheese' is entered, Data will find: Cheese, cheese, CHEESE etc.
•	If you have a label with the Data type 'Number' then only exact numerical matches will be found (e.g. if you have '123' in an entry, searching for '12' won't find it).
Wildcards
If '?ish' is entered, Data will find: dish, fish, relish etc.
If 'ch*se' is entered, Data will find: chose, cheese etc.
Labels (Data)
fields
In the Card view, labels appear on the left of the screen, and describe the content of each line in the entry. In the List view, they appear as the titles above the columns.
To change the labels, e.g. to add further labels, or make the database suitable for a completely different kind of information, select Change labels on the Tools menu. Then add further labels, change the existing ones, or remove them as required.
To change the label order in the Card view:
•	Use Label preferences on the Tools menu.
To change the column order in the List view:
•	Use Column preferences on the Tools menu.
Data can be set to only find text by a particular label when searching for entries, e.g. to search just the “Name/Subject” line.
•	The label order in the Card and List views and the "Find by label" list are independent of each other.
Adding labels (Data)
add fields change labels floating point numbers entry too big
To add new labels and specify the type of information which that line in the entry will contain, e.g. the "Source" of the information, select Change labels on the Tools menu then press Add.
Enter the text for the label and select one of the following Data types:
•	Text - set a large enough number of characters for the information to be included on the line (the maximum is 250). This length can’t be changed once entries have been added. Press Options to include phone numbers for dialling on this line or limit the number of characters used for sorting.
•	Numbers - press Options to set the upper and lower limits for numbers allowed in this label.
•	Floating point numbers - press Options to set the upper and lower limits and the number of digits after the decimal point.
•	Date - only dates will be allowed.
•	Yes/No - only 'Yes' or 'No' will be allowed.
•	Memo - this is a text field which allows an unlimited number of characters. If you create Memo labels and you then use the 'Sort by label' command, you can only use one Memo label in it, and it must come last in the series of labels to sort by.
•	The Data type can’t be changed once entries have been added.
Add any further labels, as required.
•	Position labels in the order that they are to appear in the Card view. This order can be changed later using Label preferences on the Tools menu. The width of the entry text in the Card view is determined by the length of the longest label name. If long label names are used, the rest of the text will be indented a long way to the right.
Deleting labels (Data)
deleting fields change labels
To remove labels that are no longer required, select Change labels on the Tools menu, select the label and press Delete.
Warning: When you remove a label, any information which has been entered next to it will be lost forever. If you are unsure about whether you will ever need it again, it's probably better to move the label to the bottom of the list of labels in the Label preferences dialog, rather than removing it.
Changing labels (Data)
fields change labels hide/show
To change the name of a label, select Change labels on the Tools menu, select the label to be changed and press Edit.
To change the number of characters used for sorting, whether phone numbers may be dialled or the range of allowed numbers, press Options.
•	The type or length of an existing label can’t be changed.
To change the position of a label, select Label preferences on the Tools menu, in the Card view, or Column preferences on the Tools menu, in the List view. Tick a label and move it using the dialog buttons.
•	To make a label invisible in the Card or List view, tick it and press Hide/show.
To tick several consecutive labels, tap on the first label in the range, hold down the Shift key and tap on the last label.
To tick a number of labels that aren't consecutive, hold down the Ctrl key and tap on the labels you want to select.
Finding text by labels (Data)
searching find by label
Normally when search clues are typed in, Data searches for the text in all the labels. To restrict the search to certain labels to make finding entries quicker, select Find by label on the Tools menu. The list of labels is displayed, and the labels used for searching are marked with a tick.
•	The label order in the Card and List views and the "Find by label" list are independent of each other.
Sorting entries (Data)
sort by label alphabetical order reorder rearrange
Entries appear in the order in which they were added to the database; when new entries are entered, they are put at the end of the file. To resort all entries, e.g., alphabetically by CD title, select Sort by label on the Tools menu.
Set the number of labels you wish to sort by.
Select the labels to sort by, and ascending (A-Z) or descending (Z-A) order.
•	Sorting re-orders entries in the current file - the new order is used when you open the file. However, for entries to appear in their sorted order when the file is transferred to the PC using EPOC CONNECT , you must use Save as to create a new "sorted" version of the file to transfer to the PC.
To change the number of characters of a 'Text' or 'Memo' label used for sorting, select Change labels from the Tools menu, select the label to change and press Edit. Then press Options.
•	To reduce the size of a sorted Data file, open the file and sort it as required. Then select Create new file, with a new file name. Select Merge in from the More cascade and use the old filename.
List view (Data)
column preferences
The List view displays the information as a table; each row is an entry in the Data file, and each column is a labelled line in the entry.
To move between entries:
•	Use the vertical scroll bar.
•	Press the up and down arrow keys to move up and down the list.
To see columns not currently shown:
•	Use the horizontal scroll bar.
•	Press the left and right arrow keys.
To change how this view looks:
•	To change the order of columns, the font used in each column and whether the column is visible, select Column preferences on the Tools menu.
•	To change the column width, number of "frozen" columns, row height and graphics, select View preferences on the Tools menu.
Card view (Data)
label preferences
The Card view displays each of the entries as a separate record. The entries displayed initially depend on the labels used for sorting.
To move between entries:
•	Tap on Prev and Next.
•	Press the Enter and Shift+Enter keys.
To change how this view looks:
•	To change the order of labels, the font used in each label and whether the label is visible, select Label preferences on the Tools menu.
•	To change the card width and whether card labels are shown, select View preferences on the Tools menu.
Keypresses (Data)
esc ctrl tab keyboard
The default keypresses are:
Ctrl+Tab - insert a tab in the text.
Press Esc twice to clear the Find: line.
Hold the Shift key down and use the arrow keys to select text in an entry in the Card view.
Creating a file (Data)
create new file
To create a new Data file, e.g. to keep separate business and priveat knowledgebases, select Create new file on the File menu.
To use different labels in this database, use Change labels on the Tools menu and edit the labels as required.
•	To position the labels in the order that they are to appear in the Card and List views, use Label or Column preferences on the Tools menu.
Now entries can be added to the new database.
Combining Data files
merge in
To add the entries from one Data file to another file, e.g. to combine your personal and business knowledge bases, open the Data file to which the entries will be added. Then select Merge in from the More cascade on the File menu and select the file to merge in.
The entries will be added to the end of the current file. To re-sort the database, tap in the Find: line and press Enter.
•	Only entries with the same labels and type will be added.
The inserted entries are not removed from their original file. The file whose entries have been merged in can be deleted , to save disk space.
Printing Data entries
page setup print setup
Data entries can be printed to a serial, parallel or Infrared printer. Before printing, set up the page (paper size, margins, headers & footers, etc.) using Page setup from the Printing cascade on the File menu.
Use Page setup from the Printing cascade on the File menu to specify whether you want to print 'All entries in view' (i.e. all the entries that result from a search, or the entire database if you haven't done a search), or only the current one, and to indicate the number of copies required.
Columns in Data
column preferences freeze freezing frozen
Each column in Data's List view displays the information for a particular label of each entry.
To change the order of columns, the font used in each column, and whether the column is visible, select Column preferences on the Tools menu.
To change the column width, number of frozen columns, row height and graphics (grid lines), select View preferences on the Tools menu.
Frozen columns stay on the screen all the time - the scroll bar and left and right arrow keys work only on the other columns. The rightmost column can’t be frozen. You may want to change the column widths of frozen columns so that they fit better on the screen.
Display preferences (Data)
view preferences
To change the way the Card view or List view looks use View preferences on the Tools menu.
To make more space in the Card view, change the width of the card or hide the labels.
To make more information visible in the List view, change the width of the columns and height of the rows.
•	The row height is given in points (72 points=1 inch).
Printing the database will mirror the Card view settings.
Formatting text (Data)
typestyle typeface type style type face font bold italics underlined
To change text formatting in individual labels, e.g. to make recipe titles larger than the rest of the text, select Label preferences on the Tools menu, in the Card view, or select Column preferences, in the List view. Then select the label to be formatted and press Font.
•	To change the formatting of individual pieces of text use Font in the New entry or Edit entry dialogs, or use the shortcut keypresses.
Inserting objects (Data)
linking paint picture attaching embedding OLE
To insert an object in the database, move to the place where the object is to be inserted in the add or edit entry dialog and press Object. Then select Insert object and the EPOC program to be used to create the object.
•	An EPOC Word or Record file is inserted as an icon.
To view an inserted EPOC Word file or listen to an inserted EPOC Record sound, tap on the icon twice.
Dialling from Data
telephoning DTMF dialing
Phone numbers entered in entries in a Data file can be “dialled” automatically, as long as the labels containing the numbers have been set up to allow dialling.
To set up a label to allow dialling select Change labels on the Tools menu, select the label and press Edit. Then press Options and tick the appropriate box.
•	When dialling a number, up to 5 numbers can be displayed from labels for which dialling is allowed. Any number can be displayed, even if it isn't a phone number.
Importing into Data
import text file ASCII ANSI delimiter
To import plain text into a Data file, e.g. to convert a text file into a database, the text file must be made in the following way (many PC applications can produce "CSV" files in this format):
•	Entries must be separated by an "Entry separator" character, normally an "end of line" character, which means that each entry is on a new line of text.
•	Each label must be separated by a "Label separator" character, normally a comma (,).
•	If the label separator character is one which might also appear in the label text, e.g. a comma, each label must be enclosed in "Text qualifier" characters, normally double quotes (").
•	Empty labels at the end of the entry may be omitted.
•	Empty labels anywhere else should be included as just two text qualifier characters.
E.g., a line in the text file could be:

•	"Symbian Ltd","www.symbian.com","Makers of EPOC software."Any character can be used as a separator or text qualifier. To include the text qualifier character within the text, put it in twice.
To import the file, select Import text file from the More cascade on the File menu. Select the filename and location of the file to be imported.
To change the Text qualifier, Label separator or Entry separator characters, press Options.
•	It is a good idea to make a backup copy of the original Data file, in case importing the text file causes unwanted results.
Formatting objects (Data)
resize stretch rescale trim resizing cropping format object
To format an object (change the size, scaling and appearance of pictures, graphs etc.), select the object in the Add or Edit entry dialog. Then press Object and select Format object.
Synchronising Data with a PC
synchronize synchronizing Data synchronisation
If you have EPOC Connect version 2.1 or higher, you can synchronise a Data file used as an address book with a contacts database on a PC.
Be careful to put the correct information in each label to ensure that information can be synchronised correctly.
Refer to EPOC Connect documentation for details of how to synchronise contacts databases.