Magic Database™ Help
Add Trick
This is a complicated screen. You may use it to add tricks or sleights you've learned from books or videos. You may also use it to add physical tricks or props that you've bought or made. To handle these various possibilities, the look of the top half of the screen changes to accommodate the data you wish to enter. The bottom half of the screen contains three tabs, that allow you to attach keywords, sleights, and props to the tricks, so you may search on them at a later time. If you ever want to search for all your tricks that use Elmsley counts and/or rubber bands, or are "Good for kids," this is the facility to allow you to do it. Upon entering the "Add Trick" screen, you will see directly underneath the "Add Trick/Sleight" title, two group boxes, each containing two "radio buttons."
At the extreme left, you'll see buttons labeled "Description from Book," and "Physical Trick/Prop." The default at startup is "Description from Book." As long as this button is selected, the next radio group will contain the buttons "Trick Description" and "Sleight Description." If you click back and forth between "Trick Description" and "Sleight Description," you will see that screen references to Tricks change to Sleights, and back again. This feature will allow you to search the database for Tricks or Sleights or both.
If you go to the leftmost radio group, and click on "Physical Trick/Prop," the fields related to books will be removed from the screen, and the radio group on the right will have the titles change to "Trick," and "Prop/Utility Item."
Clicking on these radio buttons will also effect the titles on the tabs on the bottom of the screen to most accurately effect their function.
Fields on the Add Trick Screen.
Book/Video Title
A drop down list of all the books in the database. You may select from this list by scrolling with the mouse, or by typing in the first few letters of the title. This field will not be displayed if you are entering a trick, or a prop/utility item.
Trick, or Sleight, or Prop/Utility
Depending on the radio buttons you selected, you will be adding one of these three items. Enter the
name of this item in this field. (Max. 45 characters)
Note: For any single book, there can be no duplicate titles. Likewise, there can be no duplicate
names for physical tricks, or props/utilities.
Page Number, or Time
If adding a trick or sleight from a book or video, the program will recognize if the source selected is a book (where you would want to enter a page number) or a video or audio where you would want to enter the time of the item on the tape. This field is fourteen characters wide, and you may use it in any way you find convenient. For instance, you may enter the page and issue date of a magazine in this field, so you only have the magazine entered once in the database (e.g. a trick found on page 123 of the Dec. 2002 issue of the Linking Ring would be entered as 123, 12/02) If you are adding a physical trick, or prop/utility, you will not see this field. (Max 14 characters)
Price
If adding a physical trick, or trick/utility, you may enter a price in this field. This may be the purchase price, or your estimate of current value, etc. As with books, you can see statistics concerning the sum and average price of the tricks in the database, and sort by it in the "Find Trick" screen. If you are adding a trick from a book, you will not see this field.
Notes
This field is essentially unlimited in length. You may enter any information you choose. I use it to enter the plot of the trick, special performing considerations, etc. I also use it to enter information as to specific page location information in the case of sleights that are described as part of a trick. Special Note: If you right click on this field, you will get an "Enlarge" pop-up menu that will enlarge the field to fill most of the form. This will make it easy to enter and review any lengthy notes you would care to enter.
Creator
Often, the author of a book will credit another magician for a trick. Or, a physical trick is credited to a specific person. You may enter the name of the creator here. This field will drop down a list of all the people in the database. Select one as described earlier. Do NOT use this field if the person is already listed as an author of magician associated with the book. Sorry, only one creator can be associated with a trick. If there are more than one, I suggest you use the Notes field to add any additional names associated with the trick. Only the name(s) associated with the Creator, Magician, or Authors can be searched. If the person who is the creator of the trick is not already in the database, you may click on the "New Creator" button to bring up the "Add Person" screen. The person you save on that screen will be automatically entered in the Creator field when you close the "Add Person" screen.
Keywords, Sleights, and Props
These tabs are what make The Magic Database so useful. You are allowed to define any manner of these three items, and associate as many as you wish with any trick. You may then use the Find Trick screen to search for tricks in myriad ways. It is suggested that you add as many of these fields to each trick in order to facilitate later searches. Note: You may use the "Notes" field to enter all the information you consider pertinent, and do your searches exclusively on that. In a large database, this might be somewhat slower, but it is entirely workable. We find the organizational capabilities of these tabs to be extremely useful, and suggest using them to organize your data.
To use, click on the tab for the item(s) you want to associate with the trick. Then move the items
from the left panel to the right. If you wish to associate a keyword, sleight or trick that is not
currently in the
database, click the "New" button (bottom-middle of tab). This will bring you to the
Add New Keyword (Sleight, Prop)
screen. Any items added in these screens will automatically be placed in the
corresponding left hand box of the "Add Trick" screen.
Buttons on the Add Trick Screen
New Book
If you are adding a trick or sleight from a book/video, and that title is not yet in the database, click on this button, which will take you to the Add Book screen. After you exit that screen, the book you have added will show up in the Book/Video field.
New Creator
If you wish to credit a specific creator to the trick, and he/she is not in the database, click on this button to be take to the Add Person screen. The person you add will be show up in the Creator field.
Clear Creator
If you erroneously add a creator to a trick, he can be removed by clicking this button. The person will not be removed from the database.
Add . . . Keyword/Prop/Sleight, Remove . . . Keyword/Prop/Sleight
New . . . Keyword/Prop/Sleight
This will bring you to the screen that will let you add a new Keyword, Prop, or Sleight. The item added will automatically be added to the right-hand attributes panel. See: Add Keyword/Prop/Sleight
Close
You may exit this screen by clicking the "Close" button. Note: If data has been entered in the "Trick" field, you will get a warning that there is data that has not been saved. See: Close Options.
Save
Saves the information on the screen to the database.
Clear
Clears all data entered on the screen.