Outreach - A Document Management System For Windows

Transcription

1 Abstract Outreach: A Document Management And Delivery System F. S. Conte, A. Ahmadi 1 Outreach is a document management system that was developed in response to increasing demands for rapid dissemination of information by mail and electronic media. It stores and delivers non-copyright protected documents such as extension fliers, extension publications, and other general information. The program is designed to print a cover letter that accompanies the document, or send the documents via fax or . The published information is protected from modification, but accompanying letters may be modified by the user to provide specific responses to information requests. Outreach operates under Microsoft Windows version 3.1 or Windows 95. The program can view and print any document created under Windows operating system. The files are font-independent, word processor-independent, and printer-independent. Outreach also has multimedia capacities. It can display graphics, show movies, play songs, or talk to the user. Outreach provides a user-friendly solution for Extension offices with information delivery responsibilities. Keywords: Document Management, Information Delivery, Outreach Outreach System Description The Outreach screen contains a Menu bar and four primary windows. The Menu bar contains a number of options that allow the operator to manipulate and navigate through the program information and documents. The four primary windows are the Publication Information window, the Notes window, the Publication List window, and the Document window. The Publication Information window contains specific information related to each document contained in the database. The Notes window contains an abstract of each document. The Publication List window contains a list of publications contained in the database and specific information related to each document. The Document window is a thumbnail picture of the documents. Functionally, whenever a listed document is highlighted in the Publication List window or one of its information sub-windows is highlighted, the materials in each of the three remaining primary windows will change to reflect the associated information pertaining to that specific document (Figure 1). Primary Windows The primary windows are the four major operational windows, and include the Publication Information window, the Notes window, the Document window, and the Publication List window. Fred. S. Conte, Department of Animal Science, University of California, Davis, CA 95616, USA, fsconte@ucdavis.edu. Abbas. Ahmadi, Department of Animal Science, University of California, Davis, CA 95616, USA, abahmadi@ucdavis.edu. 1

2 Figure 1. Outreach Screen. Publications List Window The Publications List window (Figure 2) is the "driver" window of Outreach. This window provides a vertically arranged list of all documents that have been loaded into the active database, and also contains the associated information related to each document. Each document and its associated information occupies a horizontal line within the window. By clicking anywhere on a line, the position indicated on the line is highlighted and the associated information is displayed Figure 2. Publication List Window 2

3 in the Publication Information, Document, and Notes windows. One of the most powerful tools of the program is the Publications List window working in concert with the Record heading in the Menu bar. The options in database management of Record include Append, Change, Go To, Locate, Sort, Continue, Delete, Undelete, and Pack. The actions of each are described under Record in Menu bar. Publication Information Window The Publication Information window (Figure 3) contains a vertical listing of information of the activated document. The information changes to that associated with the new activated document each time a new document line is activated in the Publications List window. The information in Publication Information is created when a new record is entered or appended using the functions of Record in the Menu bar. Figure 3. Publication Info Window. Notes Window The Notes window (Figure 4) contains a description, abstract, or information related to each document contained in the database. This material also forms the primary body of information con- Figure 4. Notes Window 3

4 tained in a linked letter that can be further modified and printed in the production of hard copy or digital material to be extended. The material in the Notes window can be changed using the Change menu item under the Record option. Abstracts or other notes can be directly typed into Notes, or an existing text file can be imported into Notes, or materials pasted into Notes from the Windows clipboard. Document Window The Documents window is a thumbnail graphic of the activated document contained in the database. Once activated, the document appears on the screen and a series of options are available using the Menu bar at the top of the screen or the Tool bar just below the Menu bar (Figure 5). Using the Tool bar functions includes the ability to employ the document file section, print the document, print a portion using cut and paste functions, re-sized the document, grasp and move items about the screen using a graphic hand, and turn pages in either direction. Figure 5. View and Print Document Fax Outreach can fax a document directly from its document database using the Microsoft Exchange or any other popular Fax programs (Figure 6). Under the Windows 3.x operating system, Outreach uses Microsoft Mail to send documents by e- mail. Under Windows 95 operating system, Outreach uses Softmail to send documents by (Figure 7). 4

5 Figure 6. Faxing a document Figure 7. ing a document 5

6 Search The Locate menu item under the Record option opens a dialog box (Figure 8) that allows the operator to search for a specific document. The user can search on Publication Number, Publication Year, Title, Author, Institution, Subject, Keywords, State, Region, Country, Language, Pages, Object Name, Object Type, Object Method, Notes, and Tag. Sort Figure 8. Locate dialog box Sort: The Sort menu item under the Record option opens a dialog box (Figure 9) that allows the operator to sort the current database up to four levels deep. The user can sort on Publication Number, Publication Year, Title, Author, Institution, Subject, Keywords, State, Region, Country, Language, Pages, Object Name, Object Type, Object Method, Notes, and Tag. Figure 9. Sort dialog box. 6

7 Letter The Letter function on the Menu bar has three options: Cover Letter, Letter Head, and Letter Foot. Cover Letter: The Cover Letter function allows the operator to create a cover letter that can be linked to any document in the database. It contains a full function, word processing program, Microsoft Windows Write, Version 3.1, but you can assign your favored word processor such as Microsoft Word as the default word processor for cover letters (Figure 10). The Letter Head and Letter Foot options allow customizing of the form letter.. Figure 10. Cover letter. References Conte, F. S. and A. Ahmadi Outreach: An Extension Information Retrieval System. Presentation: Western Regional Aquaculture Center, IAC-TC Meetings, Seattle, Washington, November 11, Conte, F. S. and A. Ahmadi Outreach: A Computer-Based, Document Management System For Extending Information. Presentation: Aquaculture' 95, San Diego, California, February 1,