¥¥¥  What you see up there is the `Menu`  

allegro : The Elements 

The blue words are the names of the important elements of the program. Click the underlined words to learn more. 
Learn and use these names, don't invent your own! When talking about problems, it helps a lot to speak a common language. 

The area in which you see this text is called the `Display area`. All record displays but also help texts or listings appear in this area. 
To display a Record, the program needs a specification saying exactly how this display has to be structured. Such specifications are called "Display parameters". They describe in minute detail, what fields have to be shown, in what order, font, and with what punctuation. To write such specifications, you nee to speak the  `Export language`. 
In the display area, you can also write! From the "File" menu, you can save the display contents (to a file of Type RTF, loadable in WinWord and others). Further, you can print the display (Printer Button at bottom left). 
Records can, however, not be edited and saved in the display area! For the record structure, as saved, looks different from what you see in the display. You see this internal structure in the 

<==`List box` on the right-hand side.

Most of the time, what you see there are the data fields of a record.  (If not, press the [Record] button.) 
Select a field, press Enter, then edit the field text in the `Input field` below the display area.This is the general method of editing. The edited record can be saved using the  [SaveRec] button. 

In the `Find Command` input box you can enter Search statements. This requires a bit of knowledge about the database in use. An easier way is to press the [Find] button which will bring up a menu on which search statements can be configured. After that, however, the Find Command line will show the real command generated from the menu input. This command can be edited there and then and reissued. 

One of the most important element is the `Index`. It consists of up to 10 alphanumerically sorted indices for browsing. After a press of the  [Index] button you always get the position where you last left off the index. The [Jndex] button (or Alt+j) opens a second and independent Index window. This, too, will always "remember" its position. Therefore, for example, you can use the second index and set it to a position you will frequently need to look up. What the index contains and what it looks like, that's all up to the index parameters, which are user-configurable and in no way hard-wired. 

Many functions are activated via the `Buttons`. 
For those users not used to a mouse, there are `keyboard functions` as well. 
`More about using a database`

?Display area=h displ 
?Input field=x h write\var "This is the input field. Enter and edit parts of records here " n "Select a data field from the list box, then [Enter]"\ansi\sho iV\sho rec 
?Auswahlfeld=x sho rec\h recrd 
?Menu=h menu 
?Find Command=h commd 
?Index=h index 
?More about using a database=h genrl 
?Buttons=h buttn 
?keyboard functions=h keys 
?Export language=h ac10