p_ex.JPG (4595 bytes)

3.1 Opening a volume of the Tipitaka or Atthakatha

There are three ways to open any volume:

1. Choosing the Open command on the BUDSIR menu
2. Pressing [Ctrl] - [O] or
3. Clicking the  button

Figure 23: Commands on the BUDSIR menu

Once the “open” command has been given, a list of volumes like the one shown in Figure 24 will appear.

Figure 24: List of volumes for opening

You can move to the volume you wish to open by using the up and down arrow keys to move the highlight tape to the volume you desire or using the mouse to click on it, then pressing [ENTER] or clicking OK, or by double clicking on the name of the volume you wish to open. Either the 45 volumes of the Tipitaka or the 70 volumes of the Atthakatha will be presented for opening, depending on which collection has been pre-selected. If, having opened up one volume, you wish to open another, repeat the previous steps. You can open up to eight volumes at any one time.

3.2 Searching by word/phrase

Words or phrases can be searched for in one of three ways:

1. Choosing the “Search for word/phrase” command on the Search menu
2. Pressing [Ctrl] - [W] or
3. Clicking on the icon  on the Toolbar.

3.2.1 Word search: “supatipanno”

Before beginning a search, you must define the collection of scriptures, whether the Tipitaka or Atthakatha, to be searched by choosing the Select Collection command on the BUDSIR menu. Then you begin searching for a word by following the steps described above. The dialog box shown in Figure 25 will appear.

Figure 25: The search by word/phrase dialog box

If the word you wish to find is not in the database, the following dialog box will appear:

Figure 26: Error dialog box when a word is not found

Press [ENTER] or click OK.

When the program has searched for all occurrences of the desired word, a dialog box will appear showing the total number of times it has been found in each volume in the Tipitaka or Atthakatha, as in Figure 27, from which you can choose a volume by moving the highlighting band to the desired volume and pressing [ENTER] or double clicking on the desired volume number.

Figure 27: Dialog box showing the number of occurrences by volume

Once a volume has been chosen, another dialog box will appear showing the number of times the word appears in that volume page-by-page, as shown in Figure 28. Choose the number of the page you want to look at by double clicking on it or moving the selection bar to it and pressing [ENTER]. The program will display the passage on the page specified with the found text highlighted. The volume, page, passage and line number of the word’s first occurrence on that page is shown on the window’s title bar, as shown in Figure 29.

Figure 28: Dialog box showing list of occurrences by page number in a single volume

Figure 29: Window showing text found in the Tipitaka

You can see the next or previous occurrence of the word or phrase by clicking the left and right arrows  on the toolbar. The left arrow will show the previous occurrence of the word or phrase, the right arrow will show the next occurrence by page and volume. If the previous or next occurrence of the word or phrase is in another volume, the program will show a dialog box as in Figure 30, asking you if you wish to open the other volume. If you answer “Yes” the program will immediately show the passage in the other volume. If you answer “No” the program will stay in the same location.

Figure 30: Message that appears when no previous occurrence is found in the volume

3.2.2 Searching for words with partial words and wild card characters

Partial words, such as metta*, *veramani, *tammay*, are used for searching for variations of words that begin with, end in or contain certain parts by using a wild card character “*” in place of the missing characters. The search is conducted in just the same way as with full word searches with the “Search for word/phrase” command on the Search menu, as in Figure 31.

Figure 31: A word search with wild card character.

The program will show a list of all words that contain the word parts specified together with the number of times each word occurs, as in Figure 32.

Figure 32: List of words that contain the word “metta*”

To search for a word, move the selection band to the desired word and press [ENTER], click on the desired word and click OK, or double click on the word. The program will display a list of occurrences by volume as in Figure 33.

The list will display the number of times the word occurs in each volume so that you can select a volume for further searching. Once you have selected the volume, a list will be displayed showing the numbers of the pages the word appears on and the number of times it appears on each page, as in Figure 34. You can then choose a page number for viewing the text on that page.

Figure 33: List of occurrences by volume

Figure 34: List of occurrences by page number

3.2.3 Searching for phrase or partial phrase

A search for phrases or partial phrases is done in much the same way as a word or partial word search, by using the “Search for word/phrase” command on the Search menu and typing the phrase or phrase part you wish to search for, as shown in Figure 35.

Figure 35: Dialog box for typing the phrase/partial phrase to be searched for

The program will display amount of all words that contain the words typed for each part of the phrase in Figure 36 .

Figure 36: Amount of words that contain the words in the phrase

After click OK, the program will ask you to specify the first and last volume to be searched in the search operation as shown in Figure 37, after which it will search the occurrences list specified and show number of occurrences list of the phrase as shown in Figure 38.

Figure 37: Dialog box for specifying volumes to be searched

Figure 38: Occurrences list of phrase(s)

Select a phrase you want and then the list by volume page is shown as Figure 39.

Figure 39 : List by volume of the phrase

From the list by volume, choose the volume you wish to search. The program will give a list of occurrences of the phrase by page for that volume, as shown in Figure 40. Choose a page number and view the text as shown in Figure 41.

Figure 40: List of occurrences of phrase by page

Figure 41: Text from the Tipitaka containing the phrase “Manosettha manomaya”

3.3 Searching by passage /page

BUDSIR IV for Windows makes it easy to choose passages by page or passage number in any volume of the Tipitaka or Atthakatha that is open just by choosing the “Go to passage/page number” command on the Search menu.

Once this command has been given, if no volume has already been opened the program will display a list of volumes in the collection for specifying the volume desired. If there is already a volume open, a dialog box as in Figure 42 will appear so that you can type the number of the passage or page you wish to look at. In defining the page or passage number, you can increase or decrease the number already on the screen by clicking on the up and down arrows to the side and then pressing [ENTER] or clicking OK.

You can also chose to look at the Table of Contents by clicking on the Contents button. You can choose the page you want from the Contents page or go back to the original dialog box and choose a page or passage number.

Figure 42: Dialog box for typing the desired page or passage number

The program will display the passage or page specified in the dialog box, as in Figure 43.

Figure 43: Text retrieved from the specified page or paragraph number

Copyright © 2002 Mahidol University All rights reserved.
Mahidol University Computing Center, Rama VI Road, Rajathewi, Bangkok 10400, THAILAND Tel. (662) 354-4333