The first time that you start RIMMF ...

Disclaimer: This is a Version 1 page, not yet updated to Version 2

The first time we start working with a new program can sometimes be aggravating.

The very first time you run a new installation of RIMMF, a form pops up asking you to set your record prefix–do this! It is very important, and is the only required Setup option in RIMMF (i.e., RIMMF should not even allow you to proceed without adding this prefix). You can read more about record prefixes under RIMMF Terminology | Concepts | Record prefixes.

Once you have this prefix setup, your next question might be: “What I do with this thing anyway?”

You might find this brief flash player tutorial helpful: RIMMFing a Resource

Here, also, are a few steps to get you started working with RIMMF. At the least, these steps should get RIMMF to do something for you, and hopefully, that 'something' will get you started on your own explorations…

From the main menu, select: File|New Template for …|Work
This should open a blank record, using the default template, for a Work entity in a new window.

Across the top of the record, you should see three column headers, named: Element Label, Text, and RDA Rule.

The Element Label column lists the elements that are appropriate for the Work entity record that you are creating. Here are a few interesting things to note about the labels in this column:

• Click on the little plus sign[+] or minus sign [-] box to the left of the Title of the Work label; this will expand or collapse the two sub-elements of the 'Title of the Work' element
• Next, click on any one of the labels, like Creator. The label will become highlighted as if you could edit it; notice the drop-down arrow on the right of the box: click on that, and a list will open that contains all elements that are valid in a Work template
• These element lists are context-sensitive: click on one of the sub-elements of Creator, like Note, and notice that the list that appears there is quite short

The Text column is where we enter the data that will describe the resources we are cataloging. Here are a few interesting things about that column:

• Although the text boxes may look small, there is virtually no limit to the amount of text you can add to them. You could test this claim by copying the entire text on this page and pasting it into a Text box of one of the elements in the record.
• Once you enter data, press <Tab>. You should see the first line or so of text. But where's the rest? Its there, you just have to toggle the option that sizes the data cells–from the main menu select View|Wrap Text column and the form will open up that cell to quite a large size.
• Some Text boxes could contain a list of terms. For example, click on the Text box for Relationship Designators for Creators–a drop-down arrow will appear on the right, and if you click on that arrow, you will see a list that contains all of the vocabulary terms that can be used for this element.

Last but not least, switch over to the RDA Rule column; all of the numbers there should be colored blue, as if they were hyperlinks. Well, they are hyperlinks! But to execute these links, we use right-click instead of left-click. Try this:

• Right-click on the RDA Rule for Creator: 19.2.1
• If you have a subscription to the RDA Toolkit, it will open in a browser window at the particular section of the rule that you selected. ¹⁾

Finally, have a look at the Indicator column–the little grey boxes that run along the left side of the form ²⁾.

• At the top of the indicator column–the horizontal bars (to the left of the column headers) represent a special menu; click on that 'menu' and see what happens–it will display all of the columns that are available in a RIMMF form, with a little checkbox next to each one, showing whether it is enabled or not. Feel free to play with that menu in your spare time, displaying and hiding columns.
• Also, if you click a cell for an element, a big black arrow appears in the 'Indicator' column for that row; and if you right-click on that arrow, a menu will pop-up and offer some options that will be very useful when you are editing records; you can play around with these options too.

That's all we want to say for this page. Click on the [x] in the top right corner of the form to close it, and respond No if you are asked to save your changes.

Anxious to see what a record looks like? There are a few demo records distributed with the program (but you really will want to make your own). Go back to the main RIMMF form–the one one with the green coconut tree doodle–and select Entity Index from the top of the Tools menu. Click on one of the items listed and press the 'Open' button at the bottom of the form. Voila.