The Main Window Pop-Up Menu
Every window that ACeDB creates has a pop-up menu associated with it. The pop-up menu associated with the main window is the one that is used to quit the program and is shown here in the accompanying figure. To access this menu, move the mouse pointer so it is within the main window - not in the title bar, or on the window's borders. Then press (and hold) the rightmost mouse button to make the menu appear and drag the mouse to highlight Quit. When you release the mouse a dialog box will ask if you really want to quit the program. Click yes with the leftmost button to confirm or no to continue.
ACeDB pop-up menus can always be accessed using the rightmost mouse button. However, the menu items and their actions are tailored to be appropriate for their window and even for the type of user. For example, although Quit is an option in every window, choosing it will not quit ACeDB unless you are in the main window's menu. In all other cases it simply makes the window disappear.
This, by the way, is one of two ways to permanently remove ACeDB windows that are no longer wanted. The alternative is to choose Clean up from the main window menu. Clean up will close every ACeDB window except the main window (this is a good way to unclutter the screen). Those accustomed to the Macintosh will be tempted to use a third method, namely clicking in the little box at the extreme left in the title bar. On the Macintosh this truly eliminates a window. But on the Sun SPARCstation (and other workstations), this action turns the window into an icon instead. A window icon can be opened again by double-clicking. Users who are not aware of this difference can quickly become confused. Just remember to select Quit for windows you want to go away.
If the mouse pointer is not in an ACeDB window, an ACeDB menu will not appear. This is because other programs that are running on your computer can generate their own menus. If a menu appears that you are not sure of, don't select anything. Instead, just move the mouse pointer outside the menu and release the mouse button. Then reposition the mouse pointer inside an ACeDB window and try again.
Although we will not discuss every main window menu item, we will point out several that are particularly important:
Help will bring up a new window containing useful information; its action is analogous to clicking on the Help button in the main window.
Program status will bring up a window which displays, among other things, what version of the ACeDB software is in use.
Finally, the Query items allow you to use a special language to interrogate the database in a sophisticated way.
There is one menu item you should avoid for now: Dump. This may create very large files on the hard disk. If this happens, the system administrator should be notified to remove them.