The Main Screen

This is where you will spend most of your time working with news objects in the AP Server database. The main screen is divided into three sections described below.

1. The Search fields - Where you enter terms describing the objects you are looking for. You may choose to use a Simple or Advanced Search interface depending on your level of expertise.
2. The Controls menus let you submit, edit, retrieve and print news objects. Click the triangles next to the Edit / Input / Output menus to display the options for each.
3. The Search Results frame shows objects that match your search query.

Search Fields - Simple Search Interface

The Simple Search interface is a powerful yet simple tool used to locate News objects. Finding News objects involves four steps:

1. Enter terms into the "Look For" field describing the objects you want to find.
   When multiple terms are entered, objects matching any of the terms will be displayed.
   Ex. Bill Clinton Al Gore returns objects that have Bill, Clinton, Al or Gore in the IPTC header text.
   Note: Boolean Logic (AND, OR, NOT) operators are not supported here.

2. Select a preset time period to search from the "From" drop-down menu. You can select to search from the last 10 minutes to the last two weeks. Search Results will be displayed by Submission date, newest to oldest. (Most recent items submitted to the AP Server are displayed first).
   To search over a specific time period, enter the starting time in the From field and the ending time in the To field. Dates must be entered as DD/MM/YY and time is entered using a 24 hour clock: 1:24 am is 01:24 and 1:24 pm is 13:24.

   To simplify date searches, you can click the icons next to the To or From fields to view a pop-up calendar. See Using the Popup Calendars for Searches.

3. Select the type of object to find: Photos, Graphics, Ads or Stories.

   • Windows PC
     Click on a single object type to select only that type of item.
     Shift-Click a second object type to select all types between the two.
     Control-Click on multiple object types to select or deselect non-adjacent types.
   • Macintosh
     Click and drag on a single object type to select only that type of item.
     Shift-Click a second object type to select all types between the two.
     Command-Click on multiple object types to select or deselect non-adjacent types.

4. Click the Search button to start searching.
   If you made a mistake, you can press Reset to clear all fields.

Searching: Advanced Interface

Search Fields - Advanced Search Interface
The Advanced Search interface offers more search options to help narrow a search and find what you need more quickly. (The search menus may be customized and appear differently than shown here.)

1. Enter your search terms in the following fields:
   • WHAT - searches for matches in the Caption, Keyword and Slug fields of an object.
     Pull down the What menu to select more specific fields to search. These specific fields may include:

     ALL (fields)	Category	Object Name	Ads Only: From Name
     Byline	Credit	Source
     Byline Title	Headline	Trans Ref. No.
     Caption Writer	Instructions	Urgency
     Note: Boolean Logic operators AND, OR, AND NOT and * (String Wildcard) may be used to search any specific fields listed above, except for the WHAT field. You must click the Boolean Search checkbox to use these operators in the WHAT field.

     Click the AND/OR drop down menu to select if search results: (AND) ...must match all criteria in the What, Where and When fields. or (OR) ...can match any of the criteria in the What, Where and When fields.

   • WHEN - Searches for objects according to the day they were submitted to the AP Server. (The most recent items submitted to the AP Server are displayed first). You can also search by Creation date, Modification date, Arrival date (or Insertion Date for Ads) individually via the WHEN drop-down menu.

     1. Enter a date in the From field to set the first date to search.
     2. Enter a date in the To field to set the last date to search (if no To date is entered, the search will end at the current date). Dates must be entered as DD/MM/YY and time is entered using a 24 hour clock (HH:MM:SS - seconds are optional): 1:24 am is 01:24 and 1:24 pm is 13:24
        To quickly search for recent objects, click the From drop down menu and select a preset search from the last 10 minutes to the last two weeks.
        To simplify date searches, you can click the icons next to the To or From menus to view a pop-up calendar. See Using the Popup Calendars for Searches.
        

   • WHERE - searches for matches in an objects Country, State and City fields. You can select to search a specific field by selecting it from the WHERE drop down menu. Enter the full name of the location in the field.

2. Select the type of object to find: Photos, Graphics, Ads or Stories.

   • Windows PC
     Click on a single object type to select only that type of item.
     Shift-Click a second object type to select all types between the two.
     Control-Click on multiple object types to select or deselect non-adjacent types.
   • Macintosh
     Click and drag on a single object type to select only that type of item.
     Shift-Click a second object type to select all types between the two.
     Command-Click on multiple object types to select or deselect non-adjacent types.

3. Click Search to start searching.
   If you made a mistake, you can press Reset to clear all fields and start again.

Boolean Search Operators

When searching through a specific IPTC Header field, or if the Boolean Search Checkbox is selected, you can use Boolean Search operators as shown below.

Operator	Description	Example
Blank	A blank space between search terms is read as an "AND" operator, which searches for objects that match all the terms.	Fashion London Paris finds objects with the words Fashion, London and Paris in the IPTC header.
AND	Boolean AND logic operator Searches for objects that match all search terms.	Smith and Jones finds objects with the words Smith and Jones in the IPTC header.
OR	Boolean OR logic operator Searches for objects that match any of the terms specified.	sun or moon or stars finds objects that have any of these words: sun or moon or stars.
AND NOT	Boolean NOT logic operator Searches for one term but excludes the other. This helps to refine searches.	strike AND NOT sports finds objects that have the word strike (transit strike) but not the word strike and baseball (baseball strike).
* (Asterisk)	Character string wild card operator Replaces a string of characters at the end of a word. Use ONLY as the last character of a search word. (The asterisk wildcard can not be used at the beginning or middle of a search word)	bal* finds objects that begin with bal like: balloon, Baltimore, Baltic etc. APS* finds objects that begin with APS: Ex. APS1001, APS1002, etc. APS* or BAY* Finds all objects that begin with APS or BAY. Ex. APS1001, APS1002, BAY201, BAY202, etc.
Single or double quotation marks should not be used in search terms.

Using the Pop-up Calendars for Searches

You can search for News Objects by the date and time they were created or entered into the AP Server or last modified. Dates and times are entered into the WHEN fields, To simplify the entering of times and dates, use the Pop-up calendars to point and click on the dates to search.

1. Click the icon next to the FROM: menu to bring up the FROM date Calendar as shown below:

   

2. Click OK when done.

1. Click the icon next to the TO: menu to bring up the TO date Calendar.
2. Select the TO: date and time just as you did with the FROM date and time shown above. If no TO: date is chosen, the search ends at today's date.
   
3. Click OK when done.

The FROM: and TO: dates appear in the WHEN menus.

You can save a set of search terms for use later on. This is useful if you've found objects and have no time to review all the results, or you want to reuse a specific search of a time and topic. System Administrators can also create Saved Searches for Users. You can save up to 15 preset searches.

1. Enter terms in the search fields and click the Save Search button.
2. Enter a name for this Saved Search in the Save Search As window.
   

3. Click Save to save this set , or click Cancel to exit without saving.
   The Saved Search appears in the Search List drop-down menu and may be selected by clicking on it.

   Note: Saved searches from the Simple search interface will not appear in the Advanced search interface and vice-versa. You must re-create the search for the other interface.
   To avoid confusion, multiple saved searches should not share the same name. Give each one a unique name.

Deleting a Saved Search:
You may save up to 15 saved searches for fast recall via the Search List menu. Once this limit has been reached, you should delete an existing Saved Search to make room for a new one.

To Delete a Saved Search:

1. Click on the Search List drop down menu and select a Saved Search to delete. The contents are displayed in the search fields. Visually confirm that this is the desired Saved Search to delete.
2. Click the Delete Search Icon next to the Search List menu.

3. You will be asked to confirm the deletion. Click OK to continue. The Saved Search is deleted and the search fields are cleared.

Controls
This frame contains the controls you use to perform tasks with news objects. Click the triangles next to EDIT, INPUT or OUTPUT to view the options for each.
Note: These controls may be customized and not available to all users.

CONTROLS Logoff - Click to exit the AP Server. The Web Browser application is still open until you close it manually.

Help - Click to view this On-Line User Guide or search for IPTC codes.

EDIT Select All - Selects all News Objects in the Search Results.

Clear Selections - Deselects all News Objects previously selected.

Delete Selections - Remove selected objects from the AP Server database. WARNING: Once an object is deleted, it cannot be recovered.

Preferences - Click to set your user preferences.

Password - Click to change your password.

INPUT Any Input Modules that may be viewed by the user will appear here. Click on a listed Input Module to submit objects to the AP Server NT database. Ex. PC Photos Input, Mac Photos Input.

OUTPUT Any Output Modules that may be viewed by the user will appear here. Click on a listed Output Module to export selected objects from the AP ServerNT database. Download to local - Click to download selected objects to your computer.

ProofPrint - Click to print a preview of the selected image.

Related Links - Click the menu to view related AP services. Click the button above it to go to that AP Service.

Displaying Search Results

At the right side of the main screen are the search results. You can customize the way search results appear onscreen. Objects can be displayed alone or with descriptions, or just a listing of the object details. You can even select the text that is displayed under each object in the User Preferences. Refer to the examples below to decide how to display Search Results.

Thumbnails	Mixed
Directory	Single

Next to each News Object are the following options

Click the item to see a 1-up preview, showing Header text.

Navigating through Search Results

Use the controls at the top of each display to move through Search Results. The number of pages changes according to the number of hits displayed per page.

Auto Update

As you work, news objects are continuously received by the AP Server. The Auto Update option updates your display with new objects as they are received.
Auto Update reissues the current search every minute and displays any new objects that match the search criteria. When updates occur, objects already displayed are repositioned on the screen. If this is distracting, you may want to turn Auto Update OFF so the updates occur only when you are ready for them.
If a User Filter is set to limit a users access to specific objects, only those objects that match the users criteria will be displayed from Auto Update.
Auto Update can be set to either ON or OFF by clicking the Auto Update checkbox. The default setting can be changed in the User Preferences.