Your Treasure Trove: Storing Contact Information
- Your Treasure Trove: Storing Contact Information
- Finding a Contact Record
- Improving a Browse List
Your Treasure Trove: Storing Contact Information
In This Chapter
Getting your hands on existing contact records
Adding information
Making new contact records
Making better contact records
GoldMine has many mechanisms that help you manage large amounts of information. But all these mechanisms depend on you being able to create contact records that you can find again when you need them. This chapter starts by exploring the File and Edit functions (these spring into action if you work from the main menu). This is usually along the top line of your GoldMine window—but it is possible for it to wander elsewhere.
Entering contact data is pretty straightforward, even if you're new to GoldMine. However, like most computer programs, GoldMine has its funny little ways—some of them well worth getting acquainted with.
Controlling Contact Data
In a contact manager system, virtually all data is connected in some way with at least one contact record. There are various types of records in GoldMine, but they are all marshaled as a set of files that is usually referred to as a database.
Commanding Files
The File menu offers commands to work with databases organized around a set of contact records (see Table 3.1).
Table 3.1 The File Menu
|
Option |
Function |
|
New Record |
Creates a fresh blank contact record in whatever database you have open at the time. |
|
Open Database |
Shows you the list of contact databases that live in your default location. You can move around until you find the one you are looking for, and then have it opened. Your previous database will be closed with the data saved as entered. |
|
New Database |
Perhaps you should check with your supervisor before making a new database. The GoldMine philosophy is to have all the contact records together in the same database—just pull out the ones you need for a particular purpose. This option calls up the Databases Wizard. |
|
Maintain Databases |
What a good idea! Makes sure that GoldMine fetches contact records as quickly as possible. See Chapter 17, "Be the Boss of the Territory: Maintaining Databases." |
|
Print Reports |
There are millions of reports waiting for you. You get to see their outputs on the screen before cluttering up any printer. See Chapter 13, "At the Mill: Generating the Reports You Like." |
|
Setup Printer |
Allows you to confirm or change your default printer or its habits. See Chapter 5, "24-Karat Printouts: Generating Paper by Printing and Faxing." |
|
Synchronize |
Reveals a submenu described in detail in Chapter 19, "High Noon: Synchronizing Records." The last item allows you to Copy or Move contact records to another database in your collection. |
|
Configure |
Opens a door to commands reserved for a supervisory personage with Master rights who can change how all GoldMine users do their work. See Chapter 9, "Prettying Up the Place: Customizing Startup and Settings." |
|
Log Away |
The associated icon shows you the exit door. You are expected to say how long you will be gone. |
|
Log in Another User |
This shows the GoldMine opening screen with your username in place—but another user can take over, or you can enter again as somebody else. |
|
Exit |
Off goes GoldMine, leaving you looking at whatever rubbish has accumulated on your desktop. |
Commanding Edits
The first four items in the Edit menu are essentially for messing about with the Clipboard. They work the same as in Windows; Table 3.2 provides a quick summary.
Table 3.2 The Edit Menu
|
Option |
Function |
|
Undo (Ctrl+Z) |
Can be used for going back a step although it isn't always obvious what it's going to undo! |
|
Cut (Ctrl+X) |
Cut out the highlight text and copy it to your Clipboard for later. |
|
Copy (Ctrl+C) |
Copy the highlighted text to your Clipboard. |
|
Paste (Ctrl+V) |
Empty the contents of your Clipboard into the field or note space beginning where your insertion point is blinking—which might not be where your cursor is pointing unless you recently clicked there. |
See What Your Clipboard Has to Offer
Windows comes with a handy Clipboard Viewer that can let you see what the Clipboard contains before you paste it. It isn't always installed by default, though. To see if you have it, click the Start menu, and then click Programs, Accessories. If you see the Clipboard Viewer's icon, you can click it to view the contents.
If you are running Microsoft Word 2000, you can click View, Toolbars, Clipboard to get the Clipboard toolbar. You can choose from 12 of the most recent clips to paste. Just point to each item to see the first 50 characters of text, or a temporary label if the item is a picture.
Table 3.3 shows the three editing commands that are special to GoldMine contact records.
Table 3.3 GoldMine-Specific Editing Commands
|
Option |
Function |
|
Copy Contact Details (Alt+E,S) |
Offers you a dialog box in which you can check which aspects of the contact record are to be copied to the Clipboard. |
|
Edit Contact (Ctrl+E) |
Jumps you back into wherever you were last working in the contact record on top of your workspace. |
|
Delete Contact (Alt+E,L) |
Offers you a dialog box to confirm exactly what you want to get rid of. |