ToyBase

ToyBase 6 was distributed on CD because it installed a program called the Borland Database Engine (BDE) onto your PC. You cannot run ToyBase by copying the program files onto another PC without also installing the BDE. If you have lost your CD and want to make another, send me an email and I will send you the link so you can download a copy of the CD over the Internet. If you are using Windows XP, Vista or 7 then I suggest you upgrade to ToyBase 7.

You will download a file called toybase6408.exe.  This is a ZIP file containing the contents of the ToyBase 6.4.8 CD. You don’t need WinZip installed – just run the program and it will create a folder called c:\toybase6408 on your PC.

Inside this folder you will find a program called welcome.exe :

Run the welcome program to install the software on your PC.

NB ToyBase 7 is much smaller and no CD is required.  The software is downloaded over the internet and the program can be copied easily between computers as it is self-contained.

I have just ordered Windows 7 with the intent of making sure that ToyBase runs on it without problem.  Microsoft generally do a very good of ensuring that older software runs on the latest version of Windows – if you do have any problem on Windows Vista make sure your user is a Power User or an Administrator or run the software in XP Compatibility Mode.

ToyBase 7.0.95 runs without problems on Windows 7.

This article describes how you could use ToyBase for the very first time.   You will have installed ToyBase as described in the email you received when you downloaded or ordered the software from our website.  If you have any problems running the software, please read the articles in the install section.

Create some Toy categories!

Each toy must belong to a category.  You have to create at least one category before you can add stock to ToyBase.  Go to the Toys…Create Category menu.  The category must have a name a 1-3 letter code. For example:

• M – Music
• JIG – Jigsaws

Hit the [Save] button, then repeat for each stock category that you have.

Create some Toys!

Go to the Toys…Create menu.  Choose your category in the list box (PUZ in this example) and ToyBase will choose a free toy number for you.  You can change it you want, before you press [Ok]

The Toy Number must be:

• the 1-3 letter category
• number 1-9999
• an optional duplicate number (if you have two copies of the same puzzle you can create PUZ1/1 and PUZ1/2)

Create a Member and borrow the toy!

Go to the Members…Create menu and fill in the name and address.  Click [Save].  You can now go to the Loan…Book Out menu and the member can borrow some toys!

Learn the rest of ToyBase…

Go to the Help…User Guide menu and print or read each section.  Then read the other articles in this website.

Sometimes I need to know what version of ToyBase you are using in order to help me with problem solving. Here are the ways you can find out:

1. if ToyBase is starting, look at the small ‘splash screen’ that appears while loading
2. if ToyBase is running, go to the Help…About menu
3. if you can’t start ToyBase:

• right-click your ToyBase icon and choose Properties
• click the Shortcut tab and the find shortcut button
• right-click ToyBase.exe and choose Properties
• click the Version tab

If you want to run ToyBase 7 on Windows Vista then you might need to enable Compatibility Mode as explained in these articles

1) http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/windows-vista/using-windows-vista-compatibility-mode/
2) http://lifehacker.com/software/vista/how-to-run-pre+vista-programs-in-compatibility-mode-251492.php

If you are still running ToyBase 6 then I suggest upgrading to version 7 on your old PC before moving the software across to your Vista machine as explained in an earlier article.