CD-ROM Documentation Current CD-ROM version is: 1.3.2 Released: 22nd. March, 1997
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WEB DOCUMENTATION

GETTING STARTED

Installation on Macintosh

If you’d like faster performance than CD access can provide, create a folder on your hard drive for Alternate Sources. Then copy the application and Alternate Sources data file into the folder you just created on your hard drive. You’ll need about 40MB on your hard disk (the demo only requires about 3MB).

Double-click on the CD-ROM or hard drive version of Alternate Sources file. After the initial copyright screen has been shown for about three seconds, you will be presented with the Details window.

Installation on Windows Platforms

Install the TrueType fonts from the CD-ROM’s Fonts folder onto your system. You need to install both the Daily Life and Annaas fonts.

For hard drive installation, you’ll need about 40MB free before you begin (the demo requires only about 3MB, plus any required system extras (such as Win32s)). Create a folder for Alternate Sources, and copy the Alternate Sources application and data files, the six .dlls, and, if you are running Windows 3.1, the 4WINSYS folder into the folder you just created.

If you are running Windows 95 or Windows NT, you do not need the 4WINSYS folder or its contents. If intend to run Alternate Sources from your Windows 3.1 hard disk, do not run it until you have copied the 4WINSYS folder to the Alternate Sources folder on your hard disk. The first time you run Alternate Sources, it will move the needed contents of the 4WINSYS folder into your Windows System folder.

Do not rename any of the Alternate Sources files, otherwise, Alternate Sources may not function properly.

To run the Alternate Sources application, double-click on the CD-ROM or the installed hard drive version of the AltSrc.exe file. After the initial copyright screen has been shown, you will be presented with the Details window.

Please see the ReadMe.txt file for greater details of the all the Windows installation processes.

WELCOME

If you’re new to MacOS or Windows, you will need to learn about how to use your computer before you start to use this CD-ROM. We assume that you have a working knowledge of your operating system.

When you bought your copy of the Alternate Sources CD-ROM, we registered you, so you’ll get update information as it becomes available.

To reach the About Alternate Sources page, click on the Alternate Sources name at the top of any window.

You can get help from any window in Alternate Sources. Just click the question mark at the top left of any window for context-sensitive help about that window. Go to the full Help system by clicking on the Help button. Once there, click on the topic you want. To browse data again, click on the Details or Listings button.

Main Help Window

Our mailing address is:

Alternate Sources
P. O. Box 19591-501
55 Bloor Street West
Toronto, Ontario M4W 3T9.

Customer Support

On line documentation, and the most recent Read Me file and information about the most recent version of the CD-ROM are available on our Web site at: Alternate.com/ASCDROMInfo.html. Please note that support is not available for the demo versions.

If you’d like support by facsimile, please send them to: (416) 962 1044. We can receive them any time of day or night.

Support and help are also available by e-mail from . Please note that support is available for the first three months after your purchase.

You should provide detailed information about both your computer and the problems you are having.

Telephone support is available from (416) 962 1040 between 09:00 and 17:00 Eastern Standard Time. Outside these hours, please leave a message.

Instructions

Details Window

Each click of the Next button shows you the next record in the database. This is fine as it goes, but you will want to search for particular entries. Click on the Find button (lower left of the window) to take you to the Find mode, where you can enter text criteria for your query.

Details Search Window in Find Mode

First, decide on how you want to construct your query. If you want to look up a particular name, type the first few characters of the name in the Name field, then press the Enter key on your keyboard.

Clicking the Continue button on the left of the window (visible in Find mode only), has the same effect as pressing the Enter key. Once the key is pressed Alternate Sources will perform the look up for you.

If there are no records found, you will be prompted to modify the search or continue. If you continue, Alternate Sources will find all the records in the database for you. Pressing modify allows you to change your search criteria and continue your search.

If there are no valid criteria in the Find window when you press the Enter key, Alternate Sources will tell you so, and prompt you to modify your search criteria, or cancel the search.

If you’d like to look up everything in a particular town, type the town name in the town field and perhaps put a province / state / county name in its field (remember, there's a Newton in just about every English-speaking country...) to find all the organizations and businesses in that town.

Hint: Remember to use the full name of the province/state/ county. Alternate Sources is an international guide, so people from France may not know that the U.S. abbreviation of Maine is ME. Also, please note that the United States of America are stored as U.S.A., not as USA.

London is in the county field, since it is so large and has many towns inside it. All other town names are stored in the spelling of the local language.

Only if your search under name fails to find anything should you try an abbreviation in that field, because we have put some abbreviations in that field. For example: the National Leather Association,which is often referred to as the "NLA."

If you want to narrow your search to a particular type of organization in that a, just put a search criterion in the type field, as well as the city field.

You can add as much critical information as you want to narrow your search.The more criteria you add to the fields in the Find window, the more you narrow down your search. For instance, asking for all Organizations: BDSM will find you hundreds of organizations.

So, putting Paris in the town field as well, will narrow your search of BDSM organizations to only the ones in Paris.

Alternate Sources will search for all words that begin with the letters you have typed in the fields. We urge you to type at least three characters for each word (where possible) to speed up your searches.

If you type more than one word into a field (i.e. separated by space characters), Alternate Sources will find all entries that have both words. For example, ’rain sun’ finds ’rain or sun’ and ’sunny with rainbows’ but not ’sunny day’ (because there is no rain in the last phrase).

The order of the words you type for query does not matter.

The case of the text in your entered criteria does not matter. This means that looking for "trouble" is the same as looking for "TROUBLE" is the same as looking for "TrouBLe".

To match a whole phrase, enclose it in double quotes, for example: "ice cream" matches "ice cream cones" and "ice creams," but not the phrase "cream and ice." When your search has been performed, the number of found records appears at the top right of the Details and the Listings windows.

Listings Window (with two found records showing)

If you’re in the Listings window and you want more details about one of the listees, click the name of that listee. This will take you to the Details window, with the listee showing.

If you’d like to copy the address, e-mail, or URL of a listee to your clipboard: in the Details window, simply click on the clipboard icon nearest the data you want. It will put onto the clipboard for you. This is useful when sending people letters or e-mail, or when you’re browsing the web at the same time as using Alternate Sources.

Advanced Use

You can also tailor your searches to far more than simply "words beginning with...." You can use the following special characters in your search criteria. They allow you far greater power to find exactly what you’re looking for.

@ matches one arbitrary character; for example ’@rain’ finds ’train’ but not ’rain’ or ’strain’

* matches zero or more arbitrary characters; for example ’*bow’ matches ’bow’ and ’rainbow’

= forces the words to be an exact matches; for example ’=sun rain’ finds ’rain and sun’ but not ’sunny with rainbows’

! finds all records that contain duplicate entries in that field To find text containing special characters, enclose the text in double quotes. For example use "aname@anaddress" would find the email address aname@anaddress.

Symbols Used in the Application

Orientation
All sexes, sexualities, & orientations	Heterosexual Male
Bisexual, both sexes	Intersex
Cross-Dressing & Transvestite	Lesbian
Female, all sexualities & orienatations	Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, & Transsexual
Gay Male	Male, all sexualities & orientations
Heterosexual, male & female	Transgender & Transsexual
Kink-Aware Professional
Profit Status
Non-profit, mainly LGBT, others welcome	Profit, mainly LGBT, others welcome
Non-profit, not LGBT, but LGBT welcome	Profit, not LGBT, but LGBT welcome
Coverage
International Coverage	National Coverage
Provincial, State, Regional, or County Coverage
Communications
Telephone	BBS
Facsimle	Cellular Telephone
Methods of Payment
Cash	American Express
Cheques	Visa
Money Orders	MasterCard
Traveller's Cheques	Diners Club
Electronic Withdrawal	Discover

KEYWORDS FOR SEARCHES

Keywords Help For Details Search Window

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