Content

PDFs

PDF stands for "Portable Document Format" and is a document file that requires software such as Adobe® Reader®. To download Adobe Reader, go to http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html.

The information in a PDF is presented as a printed page. If you want to print a document or portions of a document, then you will most likely print from the PDF.

Reading and searching PDFs in a browser
To read a PDF in your browser, click the document title using your left mouse button. The PDF is opened within a window in your browser (or in an Adobe Reader window, depending on how you have configured the Reader). You can now use the Adobe Reader to read and search the document.

Downloading PDFs
To download a PDF, click the document title using your right mouse button and save the PDF to a directory on your hard disk. You can now double-click the file in the directory to open it in Acrobat Reader. Saving a PDF to your hard disk allows you to read it when you are offline. Make sure to check the product library page regularly for updates.

BookManager Books

A BookManager Book is a document file produced by IBM's BookManager software. Books are structured by topics, with one topic providing the content for one browser window. Search results are presented using ranking within topics. BookManager also enables you to search across many books.

Reading and searching Books in a browser
To read a BookManager Book in your browser without downloading it, click on the "View" link. This shows you the Contents page for the document you selected. You can navigate or search from the contents page to the information you need.
To switch to a "framed" display, click the Frame icon . This display shows a table of contents in the left pane, and the topic in the right pane. The "unframed" display shows a single topic window.

Downloading Books
To download a Book, click on the "Download" link.
When the Contents page is displayed, click on the Book download icon and save the Book to a directory on your hard disk. (The file will have the extension .boo.) If you save a copy of the Book, make sure to check the product library page regularly for updates.

Reading a Book on your workstation
To read a Book on your workstation, you must install Softcopy Reader on your workstation (Windows or Linux). Go to http://www.ibm.com/software/applications/office/bkmgr/softcopyread.html for information on Softcopy Reader.

Reading a Book on your mainframe
To read a Book on VM or z/OS, you must have installed either BookManager READ/VM or BookManager READ/MVS, as appropriate, on your host. For information on installing and customizing these products, go to http://www.ibm.com/software/applications/office/bkmgr/library/.

To upload a Book from your workstation to your VM or z/OS host, use

• Transfer type: BINARY
• Record format: FIXED
• Logical record length: 4096

Books on z/OS should have an extension of BOOK.

Bookshelves and book indexes

A bookshelf is a collection of Books with a common theme, such as all the user documents describing a product. A bookshelf organizes documents by title rather than file name. If you are accessing documents on your workstation or mainframe, it is easier to look for a document by title than it is to look for it by a cryptical file name. Also, you can search across a bookshelf, as opposed to an individual document, which might speed up your search.

There are bookshelves for Books and extended bookshelves for PDFs. IBM has produced bookshelves (and associated indexes) for many products, though you can also build your own bookshelves if you prefer.

Softcopy Reader lets you create your own bookshelves on the workstation, and BookManager Read provides the same ability on the mainframe.

The BookManager Index Utility lets you then index the bookshelf. The mainframe version is shipped as part of the BookManager Read product. You can find the Windows version at
http://www.ibm.com/software/applications/office/bkmgr/indexwin.html.

Searching a bookshelf online
If your library page includes a "Search for text" across all books link, then you can search the bookshelf online.

Click on the "Search for text" across all books link, then enter the search text in the Search term box, and click Search. The bookshelf search results are presented as the total number of hits in each Book, and then (once you have selected a Book), by topic within the Book, in a ranked order. When you select a topic, the information is presented as a Book topic, with the text you searched for highlighted.

Note that Books are searched using a morphological approach. So searching for "elder" also finds "old" and "oldest," as associated words.

While you are viewing a Book online, you can also search within just that Book by clicking the search icon.

Downloading a bookshelf and Book index for your workstation
Download the bookshelf file from the Web to your workstation by right clicking the download link and then save the file in your local directory. Download the file with extension .bks. If you intend to upload the bookshelf to your mainframe, open the .bks file on your workstation using Wordpad and again save the file with the .bks extension. (This step overcomes a minor problem that arises from the way the bookshelf is transferred over the Internet. You do not need to do this step if you only intend to open the bookshelf on your workstation.)

The extended bookshelf file is the same as a bookshelf, except it contains a list of PDFs. Download the extended bookshelf file from the Web to your workstation by right clicking the download link and then save the file in your local directory. Download the file with extension .xks. You do not need to open (and resave) the extended bookshelf in Wordpad.

Download the index from the Web to your workstation by clicking the download link for the book or index you want to save, then select "Save to disk" and click "OK." Download the index with extension .bki.

Reading or searching a bookshelf on your workstation
You can use Softcopy Reader to open and read your bookshelf or your extended bookshelf, and to search for terms.

If you are using an extended bookshelf, and it includes PDFs that have been augmented with the IBM Advanced Linguistic Search index, then you can use the Advanced Linguistic Search plug-in, found at http://www.ibm.com/software/applications/office/bkmgr/adobeplugin.html.

Using a bookshelf on your mainframe
To upload a bookshelf to your VM or z/OS host, use

• Transfer type: TEXT

The bookshelf should have an extension of BKSHELF.

To upload an index from your workstation to your VM or z/OS host, use

• Transfer type: BINARY
• Record format: FIXED
• Logical record length: 4096

An index must have the extension BKINDEX.

You open a bookshelf using the command OPEN /n (SHELF

Once you have opened the bookshelf, you can open and read a Book, or search across all Books in the bookshelf.

You cannot upload an extended bookshelf to your mainframe, because you can't read the PDF on your mainframe.

Using Softcopy Librarian to maintain your bookshelves

Softcopy Librarian (Windows) is able to check and provide some update capabilities for bookshelves (and extended bookshelves). For information on installing Softcopy Librarian, see http://www.ibm.com/software/applications/office/bkmgr/librarian.html

Please be aware that Softcopy Librarian works from bookshelves that are released every six months. It is possible that a more recent bookshelf (and documents) has been made available on your product's Library web page.

Finding additional information

For additional information about BookManager/MVS publications, go to http://publibfp.boulder.ibm.com/cgi-bin/bookmgr/BOOKS/eox01m05/BIBLIOGRAPHY
For additional information about BookManager/VM publications, go to http://publibfp.boulder.ibm.com/cgi-bin/bookmgr/BOOKS/eij01m06/9.0
For BookManager support, go to http://www.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?rs=4&uid=swg21055193