TrainCat Help - My Inventory, Screen Layout

My Inventory - Overview
Inventory Screen Layout

Once TrainCat initializes, the program opens to the main Inventory screen where Your Inventory is entered, viewed and maintained by the six areas of the screen. Please study the image below to familiarize yourself with the general layout.

	In the upper left corner of the screen, drop-down menus provide access to the other modules of TrainCat. The Main Menu items lead to sub-menus that allow access to all system functions. File Menu provides one way to exit TrainCat.
	The Config menu contains all items required to configure, initialize or maintain secondary System Tables and System Defaults.
	Reports Menu allows quick access to Inventory Reports, Sellers Reports and Want List Reports.
	Access to the MasterList and the Integrated Price Guide is done through the Master List menu. This is also where the user goes to do updates to MasterList and the Integrated Price Guide.
	Finally, the Help menu provides the user with this Help File and an Information page for troubleshooting.

Each Inventory item is assigned to a Collection that has been created and configured through the Config Menu. The Active Collection will always default to the first Collection.

There are three drop-down filter available for the user. Each drop-down is driven from secondary System Tables managed from the Config Menu. Each filter, individually, has a Undo button to the right of the filter. This button is normally disabled until the associated filter is selected.

The fourth drop-down controls the Sort Order in which Inventory items are displayed. It also has an Undo button to it's right. However, click this button will undo ALL filters.

The Quick View, or Browse Area, shows items at a quick glance. The column that are displayed are driven by the Sort Order as selected within the Filter group.

There are slider bars on the bottom and the right side of the Browse area. These are provided for scrolling the displayed data when the required room exceeds the available space. Each column may be resized by the user to fit their needs.

When the user clicks anywhere on a specific row, the data displayed within the Data Pages will be updated to reflect the selected item. If the user clicks any of the Navigation buttons within the Command button group, the selected item will be highlighted.

The Command button group actually contains three functional groups; Navigation Buttons, Command Buttons and a Search Button when in Add Mode. Navigation buttons allow the user to navigate through the records to be viewed or edited. The screen will automatically enable/disable the navigation buttons depending on where the user is in the file. Navigation Buttons from Left to Right are:

First Item
Previous Item
Next Item
Last Item

The Command Buttons inform TrainCat on what to do with the record that is being displayed. From Left to Right, these buttons are:

The user should notice that when Adding or Editing a record, the Add and Edit buttons change functions and become Save Changes and Abandon Changes respectfully.

The Search Button is only enabled when adding a new item. Clicking the button will open up the MasterList screen where an item can be searched for. Closing the MasterList screen will transfer the selected item into the inventory.

The Data Pages have five tabs for the different information. The main tab is the General tab where the most used information resides. The Notes tab contains a general field where the user can enter any kind of notations and information. The User Defined Fields tab contains general fields where the user can customize their usage. The Images tab allows the user to attach unlimited external images directly to the Inventory item. Finally, the DCC Info tab allows the user to place information on the decoder type installed along with settings.

A jpg thumbnail image of the item is displayed if the image is found in the Thumbnail sub-directory and then in a sub-directory for each manufacturer identified by their manufacturer code. Example: A thumbnail of Micro-Trains would be placed within the "Thumbnails\MTL" sub-directory. Thumbnails should be created no larger than 96 pixels wide by 72 pixels in height having a jpg quality of 65. The thumbnail should be named with it's corresponding item number and have the file extension ".jpg" Therefore, a Micro-Trains stock number 24030 thumbnail would be named "24030.jpg". Knight Industrial Technologies offers a photo CD of almost all Micro-Trains, and other manufacturers, with their thumbnails available for purchase. Contact TexNrails at sales@texnrails.com for more information.

See Also