3.4  Adding Records

To add a record, right-click (ctrl-click on Mac) on a folder in the catalog, and select: Add Using Class. The menu displays all the types of record available - initially the choices are "Folder", "Record", and "New Class...".

There is a section of the Quick Start guide on Creating a Catalog from Scratch which includes step by step instructions on adding records. When you first start using Catalyzer, you may find it helpful to load up an example catalog to experiment with the controls. (Help : Examples from the main menu).

Adding a new record

Adding a new Folder record to a catalog

You can add a record from the Catalog tree panel to a Folder. To add a record in this way, right-click (ctrl-click on Mac) on the catalog in tree view and select Add or Add using Class: You can also click the Add button on the toolbar.

When you first start Catalyzer, the only classes available are "Folder" and "Record". So you can Add Using Class : Folder to make your folder hierarchy, and Add Using Class : Record to add empty records - but to actually start entering any information into the catalog, you need to add some of your own classes and fields. The Add Using Class : New Class... option (described below) is a start; but see also the section on Creating Classes to find out how to add fields to classes.

One quick way of creating a catalog is to import data from the file system. The file importers create classes for you automatically, and also create a record for each file on disk. See the section on cataloging files for details.

Renaming a record

Renaming a Folder record

You can rename a record by double-clicking on the record's name in the tree view and editing the text. A "Rename" menu option is also available by right-clicking records in the catalog tree view (ctrl-click on Mac). If one of the fields has been designated as the record's name (see note below for how to do this), then you have to edit that field's value to set the name instead of editing it in the tree view.

It is also possible to choose one of the record's fields as its name. To do this, the class defines where the name of a record comes from. For any class, you can designate a particular field as being used to give a name to records of that class: in the Class Window, right-click on a field name and select Set as Name from the menu. The icon appears next to the field name, to show which field is used as the record's name. The Set as Name menu option acts as a toggle, so you can also unset the choice of field to use as the name.

Duplicating a record

The duplicate button on the toolbar duplicates a record. This can be a useful way of adding several records with similar content.

Duplicating record

Adding new class of record

Initially the only classes of record available are "Folder" and "Record". You can add a record of a new class using the "Add Using : New Class..." menu:

Adding a new class of record

Creating a 'Person' record

The new record will have no fields until you add them; see the adding fields section to find out how to do this.

Viewing a record

To display a particular record, click on its name in the tree view. The corresponding record will be highlighted and displayed in the main window.

Editing a record

To begin editing a record, select it in the catalog tree view. The record displays in the Class/Record panel and you can begin adding and editing values.

Moving and copying records

You can move or copy records using cut and paste. To cut a record to the clipboard, right-click and choose Cut from the pop-up menu (CTRL-X on Windows and Linux, Command-X on Mac OS). The record will be moved from the catalog onto the clipboard. You can now paste the record somewhere else in the catalog by selecting the destination record and choosing Paste from the right-click menu (CTRL-V on Windows and Linux, Command-V on Mac). To copy the record to the clipboard without removing the original, use Copy (CTRL-C on Windows and Linux, Command-C on Mac OS) instead of Cut.

On Windows, you can also move or copy records by dragging them in the catalog tree view. To move a record, drag it onto any other record which accepts children. Records which can accept children are displayed with a folder icon. If you hold down the CTRL key while dragging, the record will be copied rather than moved.

You can move or copy several records at once. Select a record in the catalog tree view as normal, then hold down shift and select another record. These records and all intervening records will be selected. Now drag, cut or copy the records as described above.

If you press the Add button on the toolbar, it will add another record of the same class as the last record you added. As a short cut to add a particular class of record, you can also right-click (ctrl-click on Mac) on the Add button to popup a menu.

The Folder class which is included when you start Catalyzer is just a regular class - which has a "Contents" field which can contain a list of records. So you can add a subfolder by adding a record of class "Folder". You can also extend the Folder class to add your own fields (e.g. "notes"). This can be used to annotate a entire folder of records. And you can create your own custom Folder classes by duplicating the Folder class and adding extra fields - or by adding a record list field to any class.

If there is an information icon, , beside a field then there are guidelines for entering information in that field. The information displays as a tool tip window when you hover over the icon. You can also right-click on the to display the help text in a pop-up window.

This tool tip text only appears if the user that created the class filled out the Help text field option. For more information on adding help text to a field, see Using the field options.