Introduction

Cards CEO uses individual files to save each item (i.e. card) and a folder is considered a collection container. In this way, you can organize your collection any way you want.

There are a few folder that have special meaning. When the program first start, it will create the "My Cards" folder under "My Documents". Under this folder, there will be 3 sub folders:

• Knowledge: this is "what you know". Use this folder to place all items that you know exists, but you don't necessarily have. You can organize them in sub folders if you want
• Trunk: this is "what you have". In this folder place all items you have. For collectible cards enthusiasts, place as many cards of the same kind as you really have.
• Decks: This is mainly for cards collectors. Here you place different combinations of the items you have on the trunk to organize your strategic decks.

Interface

Cards CEO interface is a standard looking application. It consists of a multi document main window. In this case a "document" is a collection container (i.e. folder).

The main window has a standard menu bar. The only difference is the list box that activates the desired view mode for the current collection. The available view modes are determined by the installed plug-ins.

An opened collection window has three sections: the content view, the filter panel and the properties panel. The content view shows all the cards in the collection showing the information contained. It can be showed in thumbnail view or detail view. Both view works pretty much like the windows explorer counterparts. On the properties panel on the right you view the details of the selected card in the content view. Finally, the filter panel located on the left is used to specify the filter criteria so you can narrow the list to a few items if the list is too big.

Viewing Cards

To view a collection of cards you have to open the folder that represents the collection. To do this go to File->Open... and a folder browser will appear. Choose the desired folder or create a new one. When you click OK the selected folder will be opened showing all cards, if any, it contains. You can view the details of any item at the properties panel selecting it. To properly view the details, be sure to select the appropriate plug-in in the plug-in selector located in the menu bar. 

On the details view, you have the option to sort the items by clicking in the column with the property you want to sort to.

Tip: Lets say that the collection have two columns named "First Name" and "Last Name" and you want to sort the items by last name, then by first name, so when to items have the same last name they will be showed in alphabetical order by the name column. To do this, first click on the "First Name" column to sort the items by name, then click on the "Last Name" column, this will accomplish the desired task. In fact, you can have more complicated sorting with three or more columns.

Filtering Cards

 In order to limit the cards shown on the content view you must use the filter panel located at the left of the window. The filter criteria you can use depends on the current view mode. On this panel will appear the properties you can use to filter the cards. First you have to check the property you want to filter and then enter the criteria.

You will have three variations of filter input, depending on the type of property you want to filter:

• For text properties you will have to use a textbox. This kind of filter will include all the values that include the exact phrase you enter. It's not case sensitive.
• For numeric properties you will have three options: exact value (Equals box), minimum value (At least box), maximum value (At most box). To apply any of this you have to activate the corresponding checkbox. You can combine all three options to specify a desired criteria.
• For specific range values a list box will be available. Each item can in the list can be checked in order to include in the content view the items that match the criteria. Multiple items can be checked.

Editing Cards

To edit any selected card, first you have to enter "Edit Mode". In order to do this, you have to make sure the menu item at "Edit->Edit Mode" in the menu bar is checked. Once Edit Mode is enabled, all editable items are available at the properties panel. Depending of the type of value for a particular property, a specific type of entry box will be shown:

• For text values a textbox. Just type the desired text.
• For numeric values a numeric textbox. Use the arrows to increase or decrease the value. You can also enter the number directly using the textbox, but YOU MUST HIT THE ENTER KEY to validate the entered value.
• For specific range values, a drop down list will be available, indicating all possible values.
• For images a specific section is used for all images that an item has. This section has three parts: the image selector (a drop down list), the image preview and the command buttons. Use the drop down list to select the image name, then use the command buttons to either add or remove the image. The image is shown on the preview section.

Creating Cards

There are two ways of creating cards: one by one or with a tab-spaced text file containing all the information so you can batch-create the cards.

To create one card go to the "File->Create Card" menu. This will create a new card, but this card won't be created on the folder until you use the Save command ("File->Save"). When you create a card this way, the software assigns an automatic filename. The default format for this name is yearmontday(#).

Batch-create Cards

In order to create multiple cards at once it is necessary a tab-spaced text file. You can make one with a spreadsheet software (i.e. Excel)  list, just use the command "Save As..." and indicate in the file type list box that you want to save the spreadsheet as a tab spaced text file.

On this file you must have a filename column with the corresponding filenames for each item. Also, if the plug-in has a picture property you can indicate the filename for the picture you want to save in the card. The filename for the picture can include a path, wich can be an absolute path (e.g. "c:\my pictures\pict.jpg") or a relative path (e.g. "pictures\pict.jpg"). If the path is relative the root path will be that of the tab spaced text file.

Once you have this text file, check the plug-in selector and verify the that the plug-in you need is selected. Then go to "File->Batch Create..." and the corresponding dialog box will appear.

In the first textbox labeled "Input File" use the button "Browse" to locate the text file you already created. You could also type directly the location. Once the file is loaded a list of columns appear alongside a possible property of the selected plug-in. You must check that the column on the text file corresponds to the detected property. In case the detection process did not selected the appropriate property, double-click on the property name and a drop-down list will appear with all properties of the plug-in. Then selected the correct property for the column.

Next, use the "Output folder" text box to indicate the folder where the created cards will be created. You can use the "Browse" button next to it to indicate such folder.

After that, press the "OK" button. If the process ends successfully, a new window will appear with the recently created cards.

Finally, though the cards are on screen, they are not really written on disk, to save the cards you must use the "File->Save" command on the menu bar to successfully create all the cards you see on screen and save then on your hard drive. After doing this, your cards will be actually saved.

Renaming Cards Filenames

When you create cards one by one, the software automatically assigns a filename based on the current date. If you want to change the filename of the item use the "File->Batch Rename..." command with the selected item or items on the collection viewer. The dialog showed will contain a list of the selected items.

To rename an item you use a property of the plug-in being used. For obvious reason, the property used to rename the files must be unique for each item. Press "OK" to make the changes. This operation do not requiere using the "File->Save" command.