PK Tip: Merging Keywords

Occasionally, you may discover that you have two (or more) keywords in your Personal Knowbase data file that are redundant. Plurals, alternate spellings, and abbreviations are common culprits.

PK Tip: Using the Compact Command for Maintenance and Repair

In these days of large, cheap hard drives, most of us don't feel any need to compact a database file to save disk space.

But Personal Knowbase's Compact command does more than reduce your data file to its minimum size. Here are three additional tasks Compact can help you with:

Using Personal Knowbase to Organize Recipes

Whether you're an ardent chef, you're gathering together all your extended family's recipes, you're studying mixology, or you just bake occasionally for holidays, Personal Knowbase provides a natural and flexible way to organize your recipes. Collect all your recipes in one place where you can access them on your computer, print them, or export them to text files.

Here are some ideas for setting up a PK data file for your recipes.

PK Tip: Typing in the Index Column

In Personal Knowbase, normally we locate keywords in the Index column by clicking them with the mouse. But we can also locate keywords using the keyboard. Typing to locate keywords can save you from constant scrolling in long lists of keywords.

When the highlighted cursor focus (when the highlight has a dotted outline) is in the Index column, you can type the first few letters of a keyword to move the highlight to that keyword in the list. So, for example, if you type "sm", the highlight will move to the first keyword starting with "sm".

Using Personal Knowbase to Organize Quotations

I've been collecting quotations for decades. It's something of an obsession. I sprinkle them in websites and blog posts, tweet them to my followers, and sometimes just collect for the sake of collecting. When I read, part of my mind is always on the lookout for good quotes. Not surprisingly, I store my quote collection in Personal Knowbase.

Personal Knowbase Basic Terminology

Three basic terms can get you started using Personal Knowbase. With these three terms, the functions of most menu commands and toolbar buttons are clear. Other menu commands involve more advanced features that can usually be ignored when you're getting started.

Why Index Your Notes with Keywords (Part 2)

Software that stores freeform text information commonly uses three ways to structure data:

• Searching with Straight Text Strings
• Categorizing in Hierarchical Trees
• Indexing with User-specified Keywords

Why Index Your Notes with Keywords (Part 1)

Personal Knowbase uses a system where users specify keywords to index their notes. When you create a new text note in the software, you tag the note with one or more keywords (or key-phrases) which will later provide a fast way to locate that note.

Tips for Selecting Keywords in Personal Knowbase

New Personal Knowbase users often struggle with the best way to select keywords for the Index. Selecting keywords is very subjective. It does take a few extras minutes to select good keywords.