It is possible to transfer the information displayed in the grid on the search screen to a text file. The first question is why would you want to do this? Well, once the information is in a text file you could use it to import (transfer) the information to Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel or other software packages. You could also attach the text file to an email or transfer the information to a handheld PC.

To activate the ‘Copy To Text File’ mode, click on the Mode drop-down menu at the top of the Database Search screen and select Copy To Text File.

If you have not previously selected the information to be copied a form will now be displayed for you to do so.

This form will let you select which columns in the search grid will be copied to the text file and in which order.

For Example

If you want to copy the Artist, Album and Year columns, select Artist Album and Year in that order. To select a field, click on the appropriate box. Once the field has been selected the text will turn grey and the box will be disabled. The order in which the information is copied to a text file is shown in the list on the right hand side of the form (Print Order). In this example all Artist information will be copied to the text file, and put in column 1. The Album information will be copied over and put in column 2. Year information will be copied over and put in column 3. If you are still not sure, select some fields and try creating a text file. When the file has been created view it and see what the layout is like.

Important: Most fonts have characters that have different widths. When you open the text file you have created you may find that the columns do not line up properly. This is because the characters are of varying widths. To get the columns to line up in the text file, change the font to ‘Courier’ and turn Word Wrap off. To do this, open the text file, select Edit from the drop-down menu at the top of the screen, click on Select All, click on Font and change the font to Courier. From the same drop-down menu you can also turn Word Wrap off.

There is also a max width setting. In most cases it will be better to leave this setting to Auto. The width refers to the maximum amount of characters that will be copied for each field. So for example if you set Artist to 5, only the first 5 characters of the artists name will be copied to the text file.

If you make a mistake, click on the Clear button. All the settings will be cleared so you can start again.

When you are happy with the parameters you have selected click on the Close button.

You now need to decide which lines in the search grid you want to copy to the text file. You can double click on a line in the grid to select/deselect the entry to be copied.

You can also use the Select All button to select all the entries in the grid.

Once you have selected the entries you want to copy (these will be indicated by (File) in the left hand column) click on the ‘Create File’ button.

You will now be asked to name the text file and select the folder where you want the file to be created.

Click on the ‘Save’ button. The information selected will now be transferred to the text file. If there are a large number of entries displayed in the search grid, this operation will take a few minutes. There is a progress bar below the search grid, this indicates the progress of the copy process.

Modes are changed from the Modes drop-down menu at the top of the Database Search screen.

NOTE: The current mode is displayed in a box on the left hand side under the grid.

NOTE: When clicking on the Select All button, the button at the bottom right of the screen changes from Close to Cancel while the records are being selected. If there are a lot of entries in the grid – thousands, the process of selecting all the lines may take quite a few seconds. If you want this process to stop, click on the Cancel Button.

The same applies for the Deselect All button as well.

The Cancel button can also be used while copying a large number of records to a text file.

When the copy is complete, you will be asked if you want to view the text file. If you reply no, you can still view the file later by clicking on the View drop-down menu from the Search screen, and then select Text File. You can edit this file and make any changes permanent by clicking on the Save button.