An OVERVIEW...
Nota Bene version 15 adds a new database manager to handle (non-bibliographic) data of all kinds, replacing and significantly expanding the earlier more limited "IbidPlus":
- SAME ENGINE AS IBIDEM
It uses the same engine as Ibidem — it supports hundreds of thousands of records, up to 256 customized fields (of different data types), allows selecting on 32 fields at a time (with options to find fields that begin with, end with, or contain the search string, along with others), sorting on eight fields, links to external files of all types, subsets of records, and much more
- As with Ibidem, it is fully integrated into Nota Bene
- And it's multilingual, like all NB modules
- ENHANCED OPTIONS
- It provides a viewer that lets you see thumbnail previews of all the different files that might be linked to a record -- PDF files, images, DOCX files, web pages -- at once, without having to click on the link
- This same capability is also now available in Ibidem
- It provides a much more elegant and powerful way to create reports — output of the data in the database
- DATABASES
It comes with one predefined database — the Radius Web Pages database (a hybrid accessible in both Ibidem and Matrix, which will be automatically populated as you capture web records) — preinstalled, along with two other templates (addresses and field notes) that you can use, or you can define your own
- UNIQUE CAPABILITY
What makes Matrix unique is its report-generation capabilities — the report forms/templates are full Nota Bene Opus files, and can contain any Nota Bene structure, making Matrix an extremely powerful report generator with capabilities you are not likely to find anywhere else
- ENHANCED REPORT FORMATS
The new report — the term covers standard reports, mailmerge letters, labels, any kind of output you want from the database — format:
- Is much simpler than reports in Ibidem — much easier to edit in Opus
- A menu option is given to automatically convert existing report files to this new format
- AS noted aboave, this new format is also available in Ibidem
- These report forms are divided (visually, making it easy to distinguish the parts) into five sections:
- Header/preliminary text (if any) at the beginning of the entire report
- Text before each group of records (if any) — only if you are creating a grouped report, where records are grouped into categories defined by one of the fields in the database
- The fields and/or text and formats output for each record in the generated report
- Text after the records in a group (see #2 above)
- Footer/concluding text (if any) at the end of the entire report
- NEW INTERFACE
An all new simple-to-use interface is activated when you create or open the desired kind of report from the Matrix, Generate menu
- A popup Report Dialog Bar will display at the top of the Opus window whenever one of these report files is open, with buttons giving you access to options specific to that kind of report (e.g., Select Database, Add Fields, Generate Report, Convert [Legacy] Format, etc.)
- A new Field popup (invoked from the Report Dialog Bar, or with Ctrl/Cmd + Ins) shows all fields
- You can easily insert the field indicator in the report you are creating, with various options (such as suppressing that field in the report when it is generated if it is blank)
- You can choose to display the full field names, or the shortened two-character ID (and switch between them)
- LABELS
Matrix includes a new kind of report, labels:
- Predefined 3 [across] x 10 [deep] are provided, for both standard US letter-size and A4 sheets
- But you can also customize your own, with virtually any values (labels across vs. labels down)
- These do not need to be mailing labels — you can create reports for any purpose where you need labels, tags, other distinct output that fits on paper (adhesive or not) that has multiple distinct text labels arranged in rows and columns
- In addition, Matrix offers the option of previewing the selected label format — with the actual text from the database — for all the records in the database
- This is very useful, since it lets you make edits to records whose data is not consistent (i.e., too many lines) with the selected label format
- To make this even easier, Matrix has a function (selectable from the Report Dialog Bar mentioned above) that automatically finds the ill-structured records so you can make changes to them
- OTHER KINDS OF REPORTS (INCLUDING MAILMERGE)
In addition to support for labels, Matrix lets you create other kinds of reports:
- Mailmerge
- Simply create a report form with the text of the letter you want, inserting the fields you want to include at the relevant place
- Other kinds of extended reports (for example, for student records, or field notes) where you want the same data output for multiple records in the database
- As with mailmerge, create a template with the text and the fields you want output for each record
- PRINT PREVIEW
Matrix is unique in another way — when it generates a report (from the records you selected for the report, either the entire database, or a subset), it produces a regular Nota Bene Opus file, which you can preview (and correct and/or customize even further, if you would like) before you print it (using Nota Bene's standard print options)
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