HBar OR Reader Documentation

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HBar OR ReaderDocumentation

• A copy of the PowerPoint Viewer is shipped with
  the HBar OR Reader on the HBar Official Records
  OR CD. The PowerPoint Viewer must be installed
  prior to use.
• This documentation is in Microsoft PowerPoint
  format, the Down Arrow key or the Page Down
  key will move forward to the next screen, the Up
  Arrow or Page Up key will move to the previous
  screen

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A few quick points!

• The Official Record OR consist of 128 books and
  on average every book has more than 1000 pages
  with fine print. This is a lot of information.
  Todays computers are fast enough and large
  enough to get the job done however, it may take
  a few minutes to run some queries on the entire
  OR.
• Running a query on a very common name like
  Johnson or Smith across the entire OR will take
  time because there will be many thousands of
  places in the OR where these names are going to
  be found.
• Running a name that is not so common across the
  entire OR will take much less time. In the case
  of Sartain, it takes about 2 minutes to search
  the entire OR and to find less than 50 hits or
  locations in the OR where the name Sartain is
  found.
• Across the top of the HBar OR Reader screen you
  will find the word Stop. Clicking this word
  will stop a query or search that is in process.
  Wait for the query to stop. It is very busy!
• The Results of the Query are displayed as the
  query is taking place.

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Just Getting Started To run a query on the
entire OR, type the names or words to be found in
the text box in the bottom left corner and click
the button that says All OR
Stop
Text Box
To add a person or place name to the Possible
Name Combinations, Enter the name in the Text Box
on the left of the screen and click the Add To
List button. Then Click the All OR or Partial
button
All OR Button
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• A query on the entire OR can be seen to the left.
  The query results are displayed as a number of
  lines of text.
• ÿALLATONA.hbrþ is the first line of text. This
  line of text displays a file name ALLATONA.hbr.
  This line of text with the file name is displayed
  to tell you that the ALLATONA file has been
  searched. The blank line directly below ALLATONA
  tells you that the query did not find the word
  Sartain anywhere in the file.
• Notice that the first time there was a hit or a
  locating of the word Sartain, the hit is
  displayed as shown on the left. A little later in
  a different file Index.hbr, four additional
  hits were found.
• To display any hit, just Double-Click on the hit
  line and the OR Screen will appear. You can also
  Click on the hit line and then in the menu at the
  top of the screen click on the words Show Hit
• Once the information has been displayed, you will
  notice that the menu item at the top of the
  screen has now changed. To return to the query
  screen just click on Show Search Results!

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How to Stop a Query
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Helpful Notes

• At any time there are two screens that are
  available. An OR screen that displays the OR
  files and a Query screen that displays the Query
  or Search results. When the HBar OR Reader is
  first loaded both screens are blank. As you use
  the reader you may want to Switch between these
  two screens. Click on the word Switch in the
  menu at the top of the HBar Reader screen. If you
  then wish to Switch back just click the menu
  item again.
• You can close or clear the OR File that has been
  opened or you can close or clear the Query
  Results screen. This can be done two different
  ways.
• on the menu at the top of the screen click on the
  Clear Query or Clear OR
• Or click on File then click on Close then
  click on Close OR File or Click on Close
  Query

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Looking Around

• The Official Record (OR) for the armies of the
  North and South consist of 128 volumes, with over
  1000 pages per volume and every page is small
  print.
• HBar Enterprises has combined these books into 55
  files. You can search or query any one of these
  files, or a number of the files or the entire OR.
  You can also display one of these files at a
  time.
• With any one of the files displayed you can run a
  query on that individual file by typing the
  word(s) or name(s) in the text box at the lower
  left corner of the screen and then clicking the
  Next button. The Next button will display the
  next location in the file where the word or name
  is found. You can move through the entire file
  simply by clicking on the Next button.
• If you want to backup through the hits that you
  have seen, just click on the Previous button
• To see a list of the OR files, in the menu at the
  top of the HBar OR Reader screen, click on
  File, then click on Open then click on Open
  OR File.
• A list of files will appear. Click on any file
  that you wish to open and then click the Open
  button.

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Finding What I Want?
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I dont have time for all of those hits?

• Running a query that returns many hits creates
  another problem. How do you look at all of the
  information identified by all of the hits? The
  answer is that you change the query to get the
  results that are closer to what you want.
• Using a name as an example, running a query of
  Johnson on almost any part of the OR will
  result in many hits. In most cases several
  hundred hits. Obviously most people dont have
  the time to go through hundreds of hits.
• You can view some of them simply by
  Double-Clicking on the hit that you want to view.
  This will take you to the OR Screen. When you
  return from looking at the information at this
  location, the hit in the Query Screen will be
  colored red to show you that you have already
  looked at that hit or location.
• One way to change the query to reduce the number
  of hits, is to add more words to the query. An
  example might be instead of Johnson use John
  Johnson assuming that you are looking for
  information on a John Johnson. You should
  notice a much smaller number of hits.
• One should keep in mind that at the time the
  Civil War was fought and the OR written
  (compiled) that the common practice was to use
  initials. So a John Johnson may have been
  mentioned in the OR but he may have been
  mentioned as J. Johnson.
• And remember that no one is perfect. When the
  person or individual wrote the original document
  they may not have use a period after the initial.
  In other words, it could be in the OR as J
  Johnson or as J. Johnson or even J, Johnson.
• To make matters even more interesting, many of
  the individuals writing the documents would place
  the initials after the last name. Therefore,
  John Johnson maybe Johnson J, or Johnson
  J..
• HBar Enterprises has included a little help in
  looking for all of these different versions. The
  next chart explains a little more on how to use
  the Possible Name Combinations tools included
  in the HBar OR Reader.

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Possible Name Combinations
To help you cover many different combinations of
names in your query, we have provided the
Possible Name Combinations tool. You will find
the tool on the right side of the main screen. To
use the tool just type the name into the provided
text boxes. Type the last name into the Last
Name box, the First Name in the First Name box,
and so on for the middle name or names. If you
dont have a first name or middle name but you
have the initial(s), then type the initials into
the provided name boxes. Once you have the names
entered into the boxes, click the Potential
Names button. This will use the name information
that you have entered and will create a list of
names to be included in the query.
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Possible Name Combinations
Using the First and Last names of an individual
results in the combinations shown to the
right. Do not worry about the number of
combinations included in the query because you
will not see any information on the combination
if nothing is found during the query. Including
more combinations will in a large majority of
cases get better results And remember that you
can save the results of any query. This allows
you to open the query any time you wish, just
like opening an OR file. This will save time and
will also allow you to add your personal notes on
what is found at any particular location or
hit. Also notice that there is a possessive
combination as well Johnsons. During the Civil
War many units were named after the individual
who recruited and organized the original
unit. The individuals who were involved in the
compiling of the OR from the mountains of
information that was available knew that it would
be difficult to keep track of many of the unit
names. This is one of the obvious reasons why
they included a list of the unit names at the end
of each book. Not all books have them but most do.
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Possible Name Combinations
Using the First, Middle and Last names of an
individual results in many more combinations.
Twenty Five (25) different combinations will be
included in a query using the Possible Name
Combinations tool and the three names. The
number of different Possible Name Combinations
is being increased as we find them or identify
them. There are some cases where the initials are
located after the last name and the initials are
in parenthesis. One should also remember that it
was rare when anyone below a regimental commander
is mentioned or shown in the OR. Some after
action reports provided a few names of
individuals however, on average the naming of
enlisted individuals was very rare. HBar plans to
add a tool for military units that will be much
like the Possible Name Combinations. We hope
that this tool will be included in the next
version of the HBar OR Reader software.
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Possible Name Combinations
Modifying the Possible Name Combinations
list. You may wish to change or modify the list
that is generated by the Possible Name
Combinations tool. The list can be modified in
two different ways. To Remove any combination
from the list, highlight the item in the list by
clicking on the item in the list and them click
the Remove button. To add to the list, enter
the new or additional combination in the search
text box at the lower left of the screen and then
click the Add To List button located just below
the Clear and Remove buttons. The Clear
button clears the entire list from the Possible
Name Combinations tool. Clicking the Potential
Names button will clear the list and then
generate a new list based on the names that are
available at that time.
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Registration Screen
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Registration Instructions
Registration of the HBar OR Reader software is
required. When you first install the software you
have three (3) days to evaluate the software
before the software will stop working. Prior to
registering the software, the Registration screen
will appear every time that you run the software.
If you choose not to register the software at
that time just click on the Cancel button and
the Full HBar OR Reader software will run. To
register the software call HBar Enterprises at
800-432-7702 and tell them that you wish to
register the HBar OR Reader software. They will
ask you for the red number that you will see on
the registration screen. Give them the
registration number and they will give you a
number for you to enter into the text box located
just below the red number. Enter the number that
Hbar Enterprises gives you during the
registration process and then click
Register. The registration screen will not
appear again once the software has been
registered. You can also call using SKYPE a
voice over Internet service if you have Skypes
free software. With Skypes free software that
works with your internet connection, you can make
Skype-to-Skype calls free over the Internet. To
call H-Bar Enterprises through Skype, call
skypename hbar_ent
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Partial Button
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Partial Search Screen
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Partial Search Instructions

• There may be times when you do not wish to run a
  query on the entire 128 volumes of the Official
  Record (OR).
• This may happen because the number of hits that
  you receive from a search is so large that you
  wish to run more specific searches to reduce
  the number of hits.
• To run any query on a limited amount of the OR,
  enter the words that you wish to include in the
  search or query into the Search text box located
  at the lower left hand corner of the main screen,
  then click on the Partial button
• The Partial Search screen will be displayed. The
  Partial Search screen contains a complete list of
  the 128 volumes of the OR that have been combined
  into 55 files.
• To include any one of these files in the
  Partial query or search, just click on the name
  of the file and a check mark will appear in the
  small box located on the left end of the file
  name. When you click on the file name a small
  description of the file will be displayed in the
  larger text box located at the bottom of the
  screen.
• Click on as many of the files as you wish.
  Clicking on the same file name a second time will
  remove the check mark by the file name and will
  remove the file from the query.
• It does not hurt anything to click on a file name
  to see a description of what it contains. And
  then if you do not want to include that file then
  just click the file name a second time and you
  will clear that file name from the list.
• Once you have the files chosen that you wish to
  include in the query, click on the Search
  button at the bottom of the Partial screen.
• Give the software a couple of seconds to get the
  query or search effort started, you will see the
  results and progress in the same way as with
  other queries.

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Changing the Font and Font Size and Style
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Changing the Font, Font Size and Font Style
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Changing the Font, Font Size and Font Style

• When you change the Font Name and Font Size, the
  chosen Font and Font Size will be used for both
  OR files and Query Results until you stop using
  the HBar OR Reader. In other words changing the
  font and font size will last for the remainder of
  this session.
• If you dont like the results that you get when
  you change the font and font size then change it
  back or change it again.
• When a new session is started the HBar OR Reader
  will calculate the font size based on the size of
  your display.

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Copying Text from theOR Screen or the Query
Screen

• You can Copy Text in two ways Copy text from the
  OR screen to the corresponding Query screen, and
  Copy text from the OR screen or Query screen into
  a Word processing file.
• To Copy text from the OR Screen into the
  corresponding Query Screen, Double-Click on the
  Hit line on the Query Screen. This will take
  you to the OR Screen. Highlight the desired text
  on the OR Screen. Click Edit and Copy. Then
  SWITCH to the Query Screen and put your Cursor
  at the End of that "Hit" line. Hit Enter at least
  1 time and Click Edit and Paste. You may want to
  Save the Query by selecting File and Save Query.
• The text in Red is the Hit line, and the text
  that was copied from the OR screen is also in
  red.

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Copying Text from theOR Screen or the Query
Screen

• To Copy text from the OR Screen or the Query
  Screen and paste it into a Word Processing file
  wordpad, notepad, Word, Word Perfect, Highlight
  the text.
• Click Edit and Copy. Minimize the screen and
  start your word processor.
• Select the Cntl "V keys from your keyboard to
  paste the text into a file. Save the file!

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Unit Name Tool
Click on Show Unit Name Screen
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Unit Name Tool
_Click Add to Name List After you have Generated
the Unit Query List as described on the left
_Enter One or More of these search indicators
Unit Name, State Name, Unit Number, and Unit
Type. _Click Generate Unit Query List
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Unit Name Tool
Click Generate Unit Query List to see the
results in this box
Click Add To Name List to include this list on
the HBar OR Reader Screen
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Unit Name Tool

• The Unit Name Tool will help you find Military
  Unit information. Just enter one or more of these
  search indicators Unit Name, State Name, Unit
  Number, Unit Type.
• Click on the Generate Unit Query List button and
  see the list that is created on the right of the
  screen.
• You can use the Add button on the right of the
  screen to add just a Unit Name such as Huttos
  Infantry. Enter Huttos Infantry in the Unit Name
  box and Click Add.
• You can remove or clear an entry from the box by
  clicking on the Clear or Remove buttons on the
  right of the screen
• When your list is ready, Click the Add to Name
  List button. This will return you to the HBar OR
  Reader screen with your Unit Name List.