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

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. Today’s 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.

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

“All OR” ButtonTo 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

• 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”!

The first hit or the first time that the word or name “Sartain” was found.

Additional Hits on the word or name “Sartain”!

How to Stop a Query

To Stop a Query that is taking too long, “Click” on the word “Stop” in the menu at the top of the screen. Or “Click” any where on the blank screen area. Wait for it to stop!

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”

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.

Finding What I Want?

I don’t 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 don’t 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.

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 don’t 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.

Possible Name CombinationsUsing 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 [Johnson’s]. 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.

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.

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.

Registration Screen

Registration InstructionsRegistration 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 Skype’s free software. With Skype’s 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

Partial Button

Partial Button: Click to get to the Partial Search Screen

Partial Search Screen

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.

Changing the Font and Font Size and Style

Changing the Font, Font Size and Font Style

Find the Font Name and highlight it by clicking on it!

Choose the Font Size

Choose the style required

Then Click OK!

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 don’t 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.

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.

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!

Unit Name Tool

Click on

Show Unit Name Screen

Unit Name Tool

_Enter One or More of these search indicators: Unit Name, State Name, Unit Number, and Unit Type.

_Click Generate Unit Query List

_Click Add to Name List After you have Generated the Unit Query List as described on the left

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

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 Hutto’s Infantry. Enter Hutto’s 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.