What is EasyCardFile?

EasyCardFile emulates a stack of index cards that you would use for keeping notes.  Each card can have a category, a name, a notes page and a picture page.  You can quickly find cards by the contents of their names or notes.  Cards can be arranged and printed by category or name.

How do I get information into EasyCardFile?

Two buttons can be used to create a new card.  

New Category creates a blank card with the category "New_Category".  You can type over this to give the category a more meaningful name.

New Card creates a blank card and fills in the category field with the category that is showing in the Category pop-up menu.

The new card will appear at the top of the list, ready for you to type in the name and notes.

Double-click on a category or name in the list to edit it.

Use the Picture Page or Notes Page buttons to display the picture or notes.

Text can be dragged, typed or pasted into the notes area.  A picture can be pasted, dragged or imported into the picture area of each card.

Import data from a disk file is available under the File menu.

Trading Cards allows you to receive a group of cards that was sent from another EasyCardFile database.

How do I save my information?

EasyCardFile automatically saves your changes as you make them.  Just be sure to include the datafile in your regular backup routine.

How do I find my information?

You will see a Name search field above the Name list and a Notes search field above the Notes area.  Type words into the names search field and the cards whose names contain all of the typed words will appear in the list.  Type words into the notes search field and the cards whose notes contain all of the typed words will appear in the list.  You don't have to type whole words or type the words in any particular order.  Typing "num wa" will find records containing phrases like "I visited the Washington Monument" and "Cards can be played numerous ways".

The File menu also contains a Query Editor for building sophisticated search sentences.

How do I get information out of EasyCardFile?

The Print button gives options to print the text that is highlighted in the notes, a single card, the cards highlighted in the list or all of the cards showing in the list.

The Report Editor under the File menu allows you to create your own reports and send them to a printer or disk file.

Word Processor under the Edit menu allow print merging a letter with a selection of cards.

Within the Notes area, the File:Print menu is available for printing a single note.

Trading Cards will create a file of cards that you have selected.  These can be received by another EasyCardFile database.

Links: Can URLs for web and mail be activated?

A URL for a web site, an eMail address or other URL types can be activated by clicking in the text of the URL in the Notes area.  A single click within the link text is all that is necessary.  If the URL is properly formatted like: www.easycardfile.com, ftp://www.easycardfile.com, someone@somewhere.com, etc... the blue button below the Notes will become active with the link.  Click this button to go to the link.

Can I change the look of the list?

You can change the font appearance and the background color of the list from the EasyCardFile Preferences menu.  Each line of the list can also be given its own font color.  Highlight the lines and click the color button.

What shortcuts are available?

Note: shortcuts are typed by holding down the Command key on Mac or the Control key on Windows.

Shortcuts will look like ^U when described in this help window.  Do not hold down the shift key.

^1 displays the Notes page and ^2 displays the Picture page.

You can Right-click in the List and in the Notes areas to display available options.  If your Right-click is not available, you can hold down the control key when you click instead.

Up and down arrow keys will move the highlight up and down the list.

^M (Modify) jumps between the fields of the highlighted record. 

^D (Search) jumps into the search names and search notes areas.

The Notes area displays available shortcuts next to menu items.

^F (Find) helps you find specific text inside the displayed note.  Good for very large notes.

^G (Get Next) jumps to the next occurrence of the specified text inside the note.

These shortcuts work on the text highlighted in Notes:

^B - Bold

^U - Underline

^I - Italic