**Recent Notebook
A permanent notebook devoted to your most recently
created entries. They will be automatically removed after
a period of between 7 and 99 days that you can specify in
the Settings dialog. If you keep it sorted by time, it is
a great way to help recall what you were up to a while
back You can change this notebook' name if you wish, but
it cannot be deleted.
**Results Notebook
A permanent notebook devoted to having the entries that
satisfy a Quick Search added to it. It is also the
default destination in the Manager. This notebook is
continually emptied and refilled. You can change its name
if you wish, but it cannot be deleted.
Add
Put an entry into one or more notebooks. Adding can be
done on a single entry by using a menu choice, or on many
entries using the Manager. Entries can also be added
using drag and drop. Although the same entry can be added
to a notebook many times, there will be only one instance
of it there: Boswell checks for duplicates and keeps them
out.
Archive
(noun)
The largest component of the library; a chronological
collection of all the archived entries. You can treat it
as a single entity when searching. You cannot directly
view the entire contents of the archive any more than you
can simultaneously open all the files on your hard drive,
but it can be used in the Manager as the source for
entries to be added to notebooks. This way you can be
certain that your search did not overlook any possible
matching entries. Not all archived entries reside in
notebooks, nor do they need to, but all can be found by a
search of the archive.
Archive (verb) Removes an entry from the journal and permanently stores it in the archive. If you wish, the entry can also be added to some notebooks at the same time.
Archived Entry
An entry which has been preserved in the archive. Its
text, comments, and title can no longer be changed. All
entries in notebooks are archived, but not all archived
entries are in notebooks. Archived entries can exist in
the archive without being in any notebook. Archived
entries cannot exist in the journal. Although
unchangeable, archived entries can be cloned and their
text can be copied and pasted. The tag of an archived
entry in a notebook (called a notebook entry) can still
be changed, however. Archived entries do not need to be
added to any notebook to be accessed: the Manager can
always be used to search the archive for them and add
them to a notebook for display when needed. An entry may
be removed from a notebook, but it is never destroyed. It
remains in the archive and can be added back to any
notebook at any time.
Archived Time
A time stamp showing when the entry left the journal and
entered the archive. Later, it can be very useful to know
that the entry did not change after this time. Together
with the creation time, this provides an entry's "life
span."
Auto-Archive
Archive a journal entry and add it to notebooks without
displaying a dialog box. Boswell simply uses the
notebooks it discovered by examining the entry for
filters. You can see what those notebooks will be by
looking at the sub menu in the journal entry's tools
pop-up menu and under the Entry menu. Entries may not
exist in the journal for more than thirty days. This
keeps the number of journal entries small and manageable.
Boswell will auto-archive those which have remained there
beyond a time limit of between one and thirty days which
you can specify in the settings dialog box.
Auto-Saving
Automatically preserve the state of the library on disk
without bothering you with a dialog. This happens in the
background at intervals you specify in the settings
dialog box. These can be expressed as amounts of time, or
entries, or both. This can be very helpful if there is
ever a system crash.
Clone
Create a new journal entry whose contents starts off as
a copy of the of the "parent" notebook entry. Not to be
confused with versionize.
Comment
A text field in an entry's header that can hold 255
characters of whatever information about an entry you
wish to archive with it. A perfect place for filters.
Creation Time
A time stamp showing when the entry was created in the
journal. Later, it can be very useful to know that the
entry did not exist before this time. Together with the
archived time, this provides an entry's "life span."
Entry
An item in the journal and later in the archive
and probably some notebooks as well; comparable to a page
in a paper notebook. An entry is not of fixed length,
although it is assumed to be short. It can contain up to
32,000 characters of any text you wish which is roughly
ten printed pages. It has an informational header as well
as a larger content area for text. It is modifiable while
it is in the journal but becomes non-modifiable when it
is moved into the archive and notebooks.
Entry
Header
The top part of an entry is called the header. It
contains information about the contents as well as some
pop-up menus. This "meta-information" consists of various
"fields", or pieces of information about an entry,
including its title and time of creation among others.
These fields are very useful when sorting or hunting
through entries with the Manager.
Export
Make a copy of an entry or a notebook as a Mac text file
for use by other applications.
Filters
Character strings linked with specific notebooks. When
Boswell examines a journal entry and encounters a filter
in the entry's header or content text, the notebooks
linked with that filter are added to the suggested
destinations list. You can see that list in the archive
dialog, under the Entry menu, or in the journal entry's
tools pop-up. A notebook's name is always considered a
filter for that notebook. All the filters are displayed
in a list in the journal pane. Double-clicking on a
filter in that list will append it to the currently
displayed entry's comments. You can drag selected items
from the list and drop them into a journal entry's
comments or contents where they will appear as if you
typed them out. You can also drop them on selected
entries in the header grid.
Header
Grid
Displays the header field information for all the
entries in a notebook or the journal. In notebooks, it
can be used with drag and drop to add many entries to
other notebooks. In the journal, it can be similarly used
to append filters and notebook names to the comments of
many entries. The entries in a notebook can be sorted by
clicking on the title of a column. Current sort keys are
displayed in bold text if they are in ascending order and
bold italic text if descending.
History
A menu and a popup that shows you the last 32 entries
you have viewed. Selecting one of them will display it
again. If necessary, the journal and notebook panes will
be swpped to do this. Keying command-1 will enable you to
switch back and forth between the last two entries.
Import
Make journal entries out of the content of ordinary Mac
text files; one entry is created for each file. As well
as importing individual text files, you can import all
the text files in a folder at one time using a single
menu choice. If the file contains more text than a single
entry can contain, multiple entries will be created.
Info
Strip
An area at the top of the library window that contains
some buttons for frequently performed tasks. These can be
triggered from the menus too. The number of entries in
both the notebook and the entire library are displayed as
well. There is also a Quick Search box that will search
all the entries in the archive to find those containing
the text you specify
Journal
A specialized notebook into which new modifiable entries
can be created or imported. There is only one journal in
a library, but it should not grow infinitely -- you are
expected to archive or auto-archive frequently. Unlike a
normal notebook, the journal cannot be deleted. Neither
can it contain archived entries: the journal is the only
place journal entries can exist and it contains nothing
else.
Journal Entry
An entry in the journal. Its text can still be changed.
There should be few of these. They can be versionized and
cloned. They cannot exist in notebooks. All entries,
including imported ones, start out as journal entries.
There are four ways to create a journal entry: 1. You can
choose "New Entry" from the Entry menu or click on the
"New Entry" button in the Info Strip. This starts an
empty entry that is ready for keying. The source will be
a signature you can specify in the settings dialog. 2. A
text file can be imported to create a new journal entry.
The contents starts off as a duplicate of the file's text
and the source is the text file's name plus the folder
that contained it.Similarly an existing entry can be
cloned to start a new entry. The content text will be a
duplicate of the "parent" entry's and the source will be
the parent entry's title 4. Lastly, a journal entry can
be versionized. This auto-archives it from the journal,
but then creates a clone of it in the same place. You
notice scarcely any difference because only the source
and creation time stamp change.
Library
The whole magilla. All the pieces (notebooks, the
archive, and the journal) that comprise your Boswell
system. Because of the Mac's document paradigm, you can
have more than one library, but why would you want to?
Only one library can be open at one time
Library Window
Where notebooks get displayed. A window that shows one
entry in one notebook at a time, but can show any entry
in any notebook. It will also display the journal and its
list of filters. It has a button that will let you switch
between these two panes. This window cannot be closed.
Manager
A dialog window where you perform actions on groups of
entries in the archive, journal, or notebooks. Entries
which meet the selection criteria, can be removed from or
added to other notebooks. The entries can also have their
tag changed and journal entries can be selected for
archiving and auto-archiving.
Notebook
A collection of archived entries; assumed to share a
common topic; a view of a subset of the archive. The
entries can be sorted by several criteria.
Notebook Entry
An archived entry that has been added to one or
more notebooks. Not all archived entries need be notebook
entries.
Notebooks
A generic term for Boswell notebooks that includes the
journal as well
Permanent Notebooks
Specialized notebooks Boswell creates that it needs to
function. They are the journal for new entries, **Recent
for recent entries, **Results to contain the entries
found by a Quick Search, and __Ignore for entries you
never want to see again. You cannot delete them, but,
except for the journal, you can change their names if you
wish.
Quick
Search
A quick way to find entries that contain some specific
text. It empties the **Results notebook, examins the
content and header text of every entry in the archive
except those in the __Ignore notebook, and then displays
the **Results notebook to show you what it found. You can
do the same thing using the Manager. This is just a
simpler and easier way to satisfy your most frequent
queries.
Remove
Take an entry out of a notebook. If a journal entry is
archived, it will be removed as well. A single entry can
be removed by using a menu choice, or many entries can be
removed by using the Manager. Removing an entry from a
notebook does not destroy it because the original still
exists in the archive.
Settings A dialog box where you can set default values and customize your library.
Source Where an entry came from. The possibilities are that you keyed it, cloned it from an existing entry, or imported it from a file. If imported from a text file, the folder and file names are used as the source; if cloned, the original entry title is used. When you key the entry, the source is a user-specified signature that you set in the settings dialog.
Stationery Entries
Born to be cloned, these entries serve as reusable
"forms." Comparable to printed pads for phone messages
and such. Great for making mini-databases like a personal
address book. A few for phone messages, addresses, and
people can be found in the starter documentation library
that comes with Boswell. You will probably have a
notebook that contains nothing but stationery entries to
have them handy for easy cloning.
Tag
Labels on entries; simply user-specified strings
displayed on the first line of the entry header. There is
one per entry per notebook; the same entry can have a
different tag in every notebook that contains it. They
are the only alterable value in a notebook entry. Tags
are very useful as sort keys and status indicators.
Time
Stamp
The current time in whatever format the Finder is using
or in a sortable "YYMM-DD-HHMM" format. You can choose
which one to use in the settings dialog box. It can be
used as a suffix on default entry titles. This way you do
not need to worry about (and may actually take advantage
of) duplicate names. All entries have the time stamp of
their creation in their entry header; notebook entries
have the time stamp of their archiving as well. You can
insert a time stamp into text by using a menu choice or
by keying command-T.
Title
The name of an entry; its primary identifier. This
appears at the top of the entry, much like the headline
on a newspaper story or the subject of an e-mail message.
You set the default title in the settings dialog box.
Titles need not be unique, but your life will be much
easier if it is an accurate description of the entry's
contents. Titles on journal entries can be changed.
Versionize
Preserve the state of a journal entry by making a copy
of it in the archive. It is an easy way to do what is
essentially an auto-archive followed by a clone. Very
handy for writers.
__Ignore
Notebook
A permanent notebook containing any entries you wish
excluded from searches. You can change its name if you
wish, but it cannot be deleted. Lookupon it as a trash
can that never needs to be emptied.