tellico/doc/en/faqs.docbook

<chapter id="faqs">
<title>Questions and Answers</title>

<!-- (OPTIONAL but recommended) This chapter should include all of the silly
(and not-so-silly) newbie questions that fill up your mailbox. This chapter
should be reserved for BRIEF questions and answers! If one question uses more
than a page or so then it should probably be part of the
"Using this Application" chapter instead. You should use links to
cross-reference questions to the parts of your documentation that answer them.
This is also a great place to provide pointers to other FAQ's if your users
must do some complicated configuration on other programs in order for your
application work. -->

<qandaset id="faqlist">

<qandaentry>
<question>
<para>How do I start the program?</para>
</question>
<answer>

<para>After downloading and unpacking &appname;, run
<userinput><command>configure</command>
<option>--disable-debug</option>
<option>--enable-final</option></userinput> to configure
everything. You may need to modify some of the command line
options. After that, running
<userinput><command>make</command></userinput> will compile
&appname;. Then, as root, run <userinput><command>make
install</command></userinput> to install everything. Being root is
only necessary if you install somewhere where you don't have write
permissions. The command line to start &appname; is
<userinput><command>tellico</command></userinput>. If you install one
of the pre-packaged binaries, a menu item will be inserted for
&appname;.  </para>

</answer>
</qandaentry>

<qandaentry>
<question>
<para>How do I enter multiple authors?</para>
</question>
<answer>

<para>Author names should be separated by a semi-colon, like so:
<userinput>Brian W. Kernighan; Dennis M. Ritchie</userinput>. Don't
include the word "and" or anything similar, even if you have 20
authors. If you have the auto-format option checked, then the last
name will automatically be shown first for each author.</para>

<para>Other properties which allow multiple values, like "genre" and
"keywords", are entered in the same way, with a semi-colon (;)
separating each value.</para>

</answer>
</qandaentry>

<qandaentry>
<question>
<para>Can I modify what the printed page looks like?</para>
</question>
<answer>

<para>Yes, most certainly. Find the file <filename>tellico-printing.xsl</filename> which
 should be in the $<envar>KDEDIR</envar>/share/apps/tellico/ directory. You can copy
 that to $<envar>KDEHOME</envar>/share/apps/tellico/ for personal modifications.
 You'll have to know <ulink
 url="http://www.w3.org/TR/xslt">&xslt;</ulink>, but modifying that file
 is how you change the printing layout. &html; is generated from the
 file, and the easiest way to change the appearance of the printout is
 to modify the CSS in the top portion. Feel free to email me with questions. Any alternate &xslt; printing files will be available on <ulink
 url="&homepage;">the &appname; website</ulink>.</para>
 
<para>Be aware that the <filename>tellico-printing.xsl</filename> references another file, <filename>tellico-common.xsl</filename>, that contains some common &xslt; templates. If you copy 
<filename>tellico-printing.xsl</filename> to $<envar>KDEHOME</envar>, you must either modify the &lt;xsl:import&gt; element to point to the actual location of the <filename>tellico-common.xsl</filename> file or copy the common file as well.
</para>
</answer>
</qandaentry>
<qandaentry>
<question>
<para>How do I group by a property other than the ones listed in the toolbar?</para>
</question>
<answer>
<para>
To allow grouping by a field which doesn't allow grouping by default, check the
"Allow Grouping" box for that particular field in the "Collection Fields" dialog.
</para>
</answer>
</qandaentry>

<qandaentry>
<question><para>Why does all that gobbledy-gook show up when I run &appname;?</para></question>
<answer>
<para>Stuff like:
<screen width="40">
<computeroutput>Tellico::updateCollectionToolBar</computeroutput>
<computeroutput>GroupView::setGroupAttribute - author</computeroutput>
<computeroutput>GroupView::slotAddCollection</computeroutput>
<computeroutput>QCheckBox::property( "title" ) failed: property invalid
or does not exist</computeroutput>
</screen>

is debug info. At compile time, this can be stopped by compiling with
the <userinput><option>--disable-debug</option></userinput> flag. You
might also want to use
<userinput><option>--enable-final</option></userinput>, too, which
takes a bit more memory when compiling, but is more efficient when
running the application.</para>

<para>The last message is slightly different, it just means your Qt
 installation was compiled with some debugging information.</para>

<para>Or, if &appname; is already installed, run
<userinput><command>kdebugdialog</command></userinput> and make sure
that "0 (generic)" is unchecked. That turns off debug messages from
all generic KDE apps i.e. those not distributed officially by
KDE.</para>

</answer>
</qandaentry>

<qandaentry>
<question><para>How do I change which columns are shown?</para></question>
<answer>
<para>Right-click on the header bar. You can also drag the headers to re-order
the columns, and click on them to sort by that field.</para>
</answer>
</qandaentry>

<qandaentry>
<question><para>How do I filter by something like the "Read"
field?</para></question>
<answer>
<para>Internally, the checkbox
fields in &appname; are saved as "true", so if you'd like to filter
to show only the science fiction books which you've not read, for
example, then you have two rules. Make sure the "Match all of the
following" button is checked. Set the first rule to have "Genre"
"contains" "Science Fiction" (no quotes) and the second rule to have
"Read" "does not contain" "true" (no quotes).</para>

<para>Also, the quick filter in the toolbar will match any field,
and if there is a non-word character, the text is interpreted as a
regular expression. So if you quickly want to filter your books to
show those by Weber or Bujold, then type "weber|bujold" (no quotes) in
the toolbar.</para>
</answer>
</qandaentry>

<qandaentry>
<question><para>How do I add new entry templates?</para></question>

<answer>
<para>Entry templates should be saved in
<filename class="directory">$<envar>KDEHOME</envar>/share/apps/tellico/entry-templates/</filename>
for access for a single user or
<filename class="directory">$<envar>KDEDIR</envar>/share/apps/tellico/entry-templates/</filename>
for access by everyone. Templates in $<envar>KDEHOME</envar> will
override any files by the same name in $<envar>KDEDIRS</envar>. The
entry templates can be set on a per collection-type basis in the
settings dialog.</para>

<para>Templates for the &report-dialog; are saved in <filename class="directory">$<envar>KDEHOME</envar>/share/apps/tellico/report-templates/</filename>.
</para>
</answer>
</qandaentry>

<qandaentry>
<question><para>Compiling and installing went
fine, but when &appname; starts up, the window is blank. What's
wrong?</para></question>

<answer>
<para>KDE programs look for data in the locations defined in the
 $<envar>KDEDIRS</envar> environmental variable. If you install in
 <filename class="directory">/usr/local</filename> for example, but
 $<envar>KDEDIRS</envar> is empty or just <filename class="directory">/usr</filename>,
 then &appname; won't be able to find the files it needs. This is
 particularly true for SuSE, for which you should compile with
 <userinput><option>--prefix</option>=<filename class="directory">/opt/kde3</filename></userinput>. Alternatively,
 you could add a line to your <filename>.profile</filename> file to
 set $<envar>KDEDIRS</envar>. Check the documentation for your
 shell.</para>
</answer>
</qandaentry>

<qandaentry>
<question><para>How do I export additional bibtex fields?</para></question>
<answer>
<para>&appname; uses the <emphasis>bibtex</emphasis> property to know how to export
 bibtex fields. If you want to add additional fields to export, such
 as an abstract, open up the &fields-dialog;, and click the <guibutton>Extended
 Properties</guibutton> button. Add a <emphasis>bibtex</emphasis> property with value
 <emphasis>abstract</emphasis>. Then, when you export to bibtex or bibtexml, that
 property will be used for the bibtex field name.</para>
</answer>
</qandaentry>

<qandaentry>
<question>
<para>What happened to Bookcase?</para>
</question>

<answer>
<para>Due to a trademark conflict, Bookcase was renamed Tellico in September 2004.
Tellico 0.12 was then released, which was identical to
Bookcase 0.11, except for the name change.</para>
</answer>
</qandaentry>

<qandaentry>
<question>
<para>What does the name Tellico have to do with anything?</para>
</question>

<answer>
<para>I thought about <ulink url="http://www.periapsis.org/archives/2004/09/13/renaming_bookcase.html">several
other names</ulink>, a few of which were connected with book collections. However,
Tellico can handle more than just books, and besides, this is a hobby, so I chose
a neat-sounding (to me) name, one taken from a town close to where I grew up.</para>
</answer>
</qandaentry>

<qandaentry>
<question>
<para>What do you include those links to Amazon.com in the search results?</para>
</question>

<answer>
<para>
The <ulink url="http://www.amazon.com/gp/browse.html/002-0927720-5265623?node=3440661">terms of agreement for accessing the Amazon.com Web Services</ulink> require all images pulled from the service to be linked back to Amazon.com, as well as an additional link. The Amazon.com associate's ID is neccessarily included, so any referral payments are duly collected.
</para>
</answer>
</qandaentry>

<qandaentry>
<question>
<para>Why don't you use a real database?</para>
</question>

<answer>
<para>
Part of the reason I started &appname; was to learn C++. I didn't know SQL at the time, and at the moment, I only have a faint knowledge
of how to use it. Simply put, &appname; didn't start out as a relational database, and that won't change until sometime in the future when
I get around to learning SQL and have the time and motivation to change the data model. If that bothers you, well, don't use &appname; then.
</para>

<para>
Of course, anyone is welcome to make any changes they want to with the source code.
</para>
</answer>
</qandaentry>

</qandaset>

</chapter>