On opening the Bibliography, Cardbox displays the first record of the database between status and command lines at the top of the screen and another status line at the bottom:

The first of the three lines identifies the database.

The commands which you can use are listed on the second line at the top of the screen. Clicking on a command will cause a drop-down menu to appear with further commands. As you click on these commands, the status-line at the bottom of the screen (see the paragraph after next, below) changes to summarise their meaning. Further information about the commands is given below.

The third line consists of command buttons. If you place the mouse over a button, an explanatory message will appear.

The line at the bottom of the screen should show LEVEL 0, which means that you have not made any selections (the level number increases with each selection command) and the rest of the message means that you are looking at the first record of a database containing the total records. At higher levels of selection, the second number tells you how many records there are in the CURRENT selection.

SEARCHING FOR AND SELECTING RECORDS

The SEARCH command in the first line deals with the selection and retrieval of records. Your selection criteria can involve:
Indexed words
Indexed numbers and dates
Ranges of the above (by using wildcards �*� and �?�)
Named previous selections (by using the Keep command)
Records marked while scanning (Tagged records)

The principal SEARCH commands are SELECT, EXCLUDE and INCLUDE. Each is followed by a specification which identifies a set of records:
SELECT keeps only those cards in your current selection which match your specification, and rejects others.
EXCLUDE rejects those cards in your current selection which match your specification, and keeps all the others.
INCLUDE keeps ALL the cards in your current selection, and adds any other cards which match your specification.
UNDO ONE SELECTION cancels the last selection command.
CLEAR ALL SELECTIONS cancels all selection commands and returns you to Level 0, with all cards present in the database.
HISTORY OF SELECTIONS lists the selection commands you have used to reach the current level of selection.
TAG is used to tag or mark selected cards and so fine-tune selections made on formal criteria.
KEEP enables you to keep an intermediate selection, so that you can combine it later with other selections made on different criteria.
BROWSE is a way of scanning selectively: either by going to a particular record number or by making a selection (but seeing the selection in the context of the current selection).
DATA enables you to use the SELECT and EXCLUDE commands to unindexed as well as indexed text. This option makes Cardbox read through the text of each card, rather than just the index, so it is slower in action.

When you leave Cardbox, all selections you have made, including those you have specially marked using the KEEP or the TAG command, will be forgotten by Cardbox.

PRESENTATION AND OUTPUT

The FILE: PRINT, FILE: EXPORT, and VIEW commands deal with the presentation and output of records.
FILE: PRINT is a command you use to output records to the printer, using the currently selected format.
FILE: EXPORT outputs records to a designated file for processing by other programs.
VIEW: CHANGE FORMAT enables you to change the format in which records are displayed and output.
VIEW: SEQUENCE enables you to sequence the records in ascending or descending alphabetical or numerical order on a specified field or fields.

All commands in this group present supplementary menus, and are further described in Display and Output.