How to Use PubGizmo

While there are specific functions performed by each of PubGizmo's modules, there's a general convention on how to use specific features throughout. These gizmos and gadgets are helpful to know.

Documentation Covention

Capitalization

We capitalize record types; consider a word that seems oddly capitalized as if it is followed by the word "record." For example, your press publishes a bunch of titles, but when we refer in documentation to those records in PubGizmo, we say "Titles," meaning "title records," e.g., "view that Title" means "view that title record."

We also capitalize labels, and sometimes concepts. So when we refer to the "Keywords" field, it is capitalized because on the Title record you will see an actual label that reads "Keywords."

Terminology

Found Set

In PubGizmo your Found Set represents a subset of all the records in that module. Your Found Set varies depending on how you arrive at a record or records; for example, if you conduct a find for a Title which yields a single record, you have one record in your Found Set. But if you search the Titles module for all that are Genre = "poetry" of the poetry genre (by entering "poetry" in the search box – more on searches below), and 25 records are found, your Found Set = 25 records.

You can see your Found Set record count by looking at the bottom-right of the window:

In this case, the found set is one record, and there are three records in total.

Tooltips

Some objects yield additional information when you hover your mouse pointer over them. Move the mouse pointer in place above the object and after a brief pause a box will appear with some text, such as:

• explanation for a code or status, e.g., if something is red, hover to see why
• an action you can take on that object, e.g., check this box to indicate that the record is active
• on a field, it may yield the full contents of the field itself, e.g. if there's a chance the field cannot accommodate all the data
• a field hover may also provide additional info, e.g., the meaning of the code stored in the field

Portals

Portals are simply lists of data, each item in the list a record unto itself with multiple fields, frequently with green links to other records. You can edit data in portals is a number of ways, usually dependent on how many fields comprised that record:

click and edit directly: click into the field and type

open a popover: a popover provides access to more fields than can be comfortably contained in the portal row, for example the description text for an author bio or book summary – you'll know a popover when you click, and it opens; to exit a popover, just click elsewhere, although a few popovers require you to click a button to close it.

Understanding FileMaker Pro

Your Copy of PubGizmo

Lots of presses use PubGizmo; each is hosted in an individual file or instance. All your data is self-contained and separate from the data of all other presses using PubGizmo. It cannot be seen or accessed by anyone without your account name and password. Keep these safe!

PubGizmo Runs "Inside" FileMaker Pro

To access PubGizmo, you need to use FileMaker Pro (made by Claris, owned by Apple) on your computer (Mac or Windows). Think of the relationship between FileMaker Pro and your copy of PubGizmo, containing all your press's Titles, Contacts, Sales Records, the way Microsoft Word is needed to open a Word document. PubGizmo is essentially a FileMaker Pro "document."

PubGizmo "in the cloud"

Your copy of PubGizmo is hosted on a server on the internet, which means it's "in the cloud," i.e., accessible from anywhere with an internet connection. So you can access it from your office, your home, or when travelling, e.g., from Frankfurt. Access speed diminishes with increased distance from your server (in Toronto or Vancouver), so if you are far away, access speed may be reduced.

Committing Records

FileMaker Pro saves or "commits" records automatically once you exit all fields on that record. So if you change data in a field and click outside the field, the data is saved. You don't have to do anything else to save a record when you create it or make changes.

No Undo

Immediate saving also means there's no "undo" once you've committed or deleted a record. Be careful! If you do delete something critical, let us know ASAP so we can attempt a recovery.

PubGizmo Modules: Home Screen

Module Buttons

Down the left side of the screen you will see module buttons.

Main Button

Click a button to navigate to that module; you may arrive at a single record or a list of records, depending on the status of the Found Set (see above) currently active in that module.

+ Button

Click the "+" button (if present) to create a new record in that module; for example, to create a new Title record, click the + and a new record will be created, ready for data entry.

Search Box

Search for a record in the module by typing in the box.

Session History

Whenever you visit a record, that visit gets recorded in the Session History on the Home screen. This list represents a map of everywhere you've been, and since each record is a link, allows you to quickly return to any of those records by clicking it.

Latest Visit Only

If you visit a record twice, you'll see that record only once in the Session History, showing the last visit timestamp.

Retain History

You Session History is normally deleted when you logout, but you you can retain your history between sessions by clicking the Prefs button at the bottom-left and checking the "Retain Session History" box.

Bookmarks

Bookmark records you use frequently, so you can navigate to them instantly from the Home screen. You bookmark a record by clicking the bookmark icon at the bottom-right of Form View records. The bookmark will turn red, and you'll be able to see and navigate to bookmarked records from the Home screen History portal.

Removing Bookmarks

You can remove a bookmarked record one of two ways:

1. click the trash icon beside the record in the Bookmarks list; the record is retained – only the bookmark is removed
2. click the bookmark icon on the record itself; it will switch from red to grey, and the record will no longer appear in the Bookmark portal on Home.

Form View and List View

You'll see records presented in two different ways:

Form View

Form View presents a single record. When you conduct a search or click a button that yields a single record (one record in your Found Set), you will arrive at Form view of that record, with all of its data presented on a single layout.

List View

List View shows you limited information about a collection of records. If you perform an operation that produces a found set with two or more records, they will be presented in List view.

To Open a Single Record

In List View, open a record in the list by clicking it. The view will change to Form View of that record.

Note however that your Found Set does not change when you enter Form View by clicking a record in List View. If you were viewing 12 records in List View, and you click on one, the record will open in List View, but the other records remain in the Found Set. You can use the left and right arrows at the upper-left of the screen to page through all the records in the Found Set.

You can also return to List View of the Found Set by using the Three-Dot Menu.

Which View Do You Get?

In general PubGizmo uses the size of your Found Set to determine which view to send you to.

• one record in Found Set: Form View
• two or more records in Found Set: List View

Getting Around

Clicking

Buttons

Most of PubGizmo's navigation duplicates what you already do in software and on websites: click an item (only a single click is necessary) to go somewhere else. Click the Contact button to go to the Contacts module. Easy.

Links

Also like the web, PubGizmo provides "links" that you can click to go to that target info. These links are created automatically as you add data; you don't need to do anything special.

On the web, you can identify a link a couple of ways: it might be in blue, or underlined, or both.

In PubGizmo, links are green: "green means go." So if you are viewing a Contact record for an author, the Titles tab/portal shows all the Title records associated with this author in green. Click one to visit that Title record. In this case, if you click on the first green title:

You will navigate to that Title record.

On the Title record, you'll see that the opposite end of this link will take you back to the author's record:

The Three-dot Menu

At the upper-left of every major module you'll see a green button with three vertical dots. Click it to reveal a number of options, which are slightly different depending on whether you are viewing a list of records or single record.

Single Record

Here's the single record menu:

Here are the options available from this menu:

• Show List: switches from single record view to show a list of records in the module, showing all the records in the found set
• Show All Records: shows only if you have homed in on a single record in the found set; will also take you to
• NEW Record: creates a new record
• DELETE Record: deletes the current record – see notes below
• list of other modules: allows "cross-navigation" to another module, allowing you to bypass the Home screen

List View

Searching

You can also go to a specific record or set of records by searching, again much the way you do on the web, where what you type auto-completes as PubGizmo tries to anticipate what you're looking for. PubGizmo uses something called the QuickDex, which accelerates searches and navigation. Its use is more substantially covered on this page.