Following is a press release for PostSearch 2.0 that appeared in the industry journal Information Today on February 1, 2995. PostSearch was a database search post-processor that reclaimed hours per day for professional database searchers.
PostSearch 2.0 Press Release
[Synoptic Text] has released Version 2.0 of PostSearch for Windows.
PostSearch is a series of database search post-processors with, coverage of DIALOG, Knowledge Index, Dow Jones News/Retrieval //TEXT, DataStar, DataTimes, NewsNet, STN, CD Plus (formerly BRS), National Library of Medicine, PaperChase and Syntex.
PostSearch automates search clean-up. It lets database searchers turn on the screen capture feature of their communication programs at the beginning of search sessions, capture everything, and when offline use PostSearch to get just the records–labeled and numbered–in moments.
PostSearch reads a captured search file and creates a new file filtering out everything but the database records. The filters omit menus, prompts, commands, error messages and other unnecessary material. The filters also label and number the records in the form “Record-1” similar to the format of offline prints delivered via DialMail. Postsearch preserves the original captured search file unaltered.
After clean-up, PostSearch lets a searcher “sift” the records by editing a filtered search on a record-centered basis rather than on the line-centered or page-centered basis employed in word processors. Though a cleaned up search is sheer text, not a database, and though the records are of variable length, the sifter’s commands can act at once on whole records as discrete units.
The searcher can view records, navigating through them record-by-record with the commands Next, Previous, First, Last and Jump (directly to a record by number), can write chosen records to one or many new files with the commands Keep and Keep Express, and can reorder records with the Order command.
PostSearch provides other post-processing functions, such as Query-by-Form (QBF), renumbering record labels, inserting page breaks, and reformatting Dialog TaGed records to remove hard carriage returns within fields.
The major improvements in Version 2.0 for Windows center on the user interface, filtering speed and online help. The interface is completely reworked to a graphical, 3D appearance, providing more direct access to post-processing functions. Filtering speed is from 23 to 27 percent faster, depending upon the system where the search was conducted. Online help is reorganized and enhanced with graphical illustrations.
Other improvements include faster program launch, time-sharing with other running Windows applications, implementation of Cancel buttons on most processes, more thorough-going error trapping and recovery, and the ability to copy from the file viewer and sift viewer to other Windows applications through the Windows clipboard.
Post Search DI covers DIALOG, and PostSearch OS covers all of the 11 systems except Knowledge Index and PaperChase. PostSearch DI for either Windows or DOS is $49. PostSearch OS for either Windows or DOS is $75.
[Synoptic Text] offers a free demo disk using a fully operational copy of PostSearch KI covering Knowledge Index, which has the same look-and-feel, features-and-functions as PostSearch DI. It comes with a provided sample search file and instruction brochure.
