User Documentation
Crystal Keeper is a mineral cataloging program that can store minerals and related notes all in one file. It's useful for keeping track of your minerals, locality information, and anything related.
Crystal Keeper is only designed to run on Windows. To install, double-click the .msi file that you downloaded. The installer will guide you through the short installation process. You will need to be an administrator to install the program.
If you see a message asking if you want to run the program as an administrator, select "Yes".
Every time you start the program, you will see the window pictured below.
New: Click this button (or press Ctrl + N) to open a new project.
Open: Click this button (or press Ctrl + O) to load an existing project.
Recent Files: Any recently saved files show up as black text links. Click one to open that file.
After creating a new project or loading an old one, this window appears. The red text in the picture below points to some of the features:
- The red area is the hierarchy pane, where you select or manipulate items in the project.
- The green area is the content pane, which displays the selected item from the hierarchy pane.
- The blue area is the menu bar, which provides options like help, file functions, and template editing.
Everything in the picture above was renamed to show what they are:
- Database: Deals with project-wide preferences.
- Collection: Stores entries in groups, including a special group called "All" that has all entries from the collection.
- Group: To help organize collections, entries are grouped.
- Entry: The actual data, like a recording of a mineral, or details about a locality.
Add to the hierarchy by clicking a box at the bottom of the hierarchy pane, typing a name, and pressing enter to confirm.
- When the database is selected, you can add collections. They appear under it.
- When a collection or group is selected, you can add groups or entries, which appear under that collection.
- When an entry is selected, you can add other entries to appear under the same group. When adding a collection, you need to choose a template.
You can press delete to remove the selected item. You can't delete the database or the special groups called "All".
You can right-click for options to delete or rename the selected item. You can't rename special groups called "All".
File
New: Starts a new project.
Open: Opens an existing project.
Recent: If there are recently-saved files, they appear here. Clicking one will load it.
Save: Saves the current project. If it hasn't been saved yet, asks where it should be saved.
Save As: Always asks where to save the current project before saving it.
Templates
New...: Opens the template editor to create a new template.
Existing templates appear as options under the 'New' button. Clicking one will open the template editor to change it.
Help
Help: Opens a link to this page.
About: Displays the version number, copyright, and a paragraph about the purpose of Crystal Keeper.
The active item in the hierarchy is shown in the content pane, either in edit mode or view mode.
- In edit mode, you can rename the item and change any data associated with it.
- In view mode, you can easily navigate down to individual entries. Printing always prints in view mode.
View mode
A database page shows the name, description, and a list of links to collections. Clicking a link goes to it.
A collection page shows the name, description, and a list of links to groupings. Clicking a grouping goes to it.
A group page shows the name and a list of links to entries. Clicking an entry goes to it.
The entry page shows all fields that have been filled in, based on the template that the collection containing it uses.
Edit mode
All names are editable when in edit mode.
Open in ____ mode by default: You can open in edit or view mode when the project loads.
Background image: Click to upload an image to use for the background of every page. Light backgrounds work best.
Template: The template for a collection can't be edited after it is set, but this shows which template is used.
Description: You can type a description for what the collection contains here. The screenshot says "My mineral collection."
Every entry in the group appears under "In group", while every other entry in the collection appears under "Not in group". You can switch selected items in/out of the group by clicking the black arrows.
It's possible to set up automatic grouping. Whenever an entry is added to the collection and it satisfies all the conditions to be in a group, it's automatically added.
New condition: Adds a new condition. In this case, entries with names starting from Ab to Fi are auto-added.
Evaluate conditions: After changing or adding conditions, click this button to add all the entries that match the conditions.
Delete: Deletes the condition displayed next to it.
All the data for entries is based on the template of the collection that the entry is part of. There are different kinds of fields.
- The three icons just under the name "e1" is an image field. You can click the red X to delete images (if there are any). Click the green + to upload any number of images. Click the video to upload a movie or animation instead. If you upload images with the animation icon, they show up as a slideshow.
- The box under "Primary Mineral Species" is a mineral suggestion box. When you start typing the name of a mineral, suggestions are displayed in a list underneath the box. Clicking one selects that suggestion. There are name, locality, species group, and formula suggestions. For example, typing "Azurite" under Primary Chemical Formula and selecting it will fill in the formula for Azurite. IMA-recognized minerals are italicized; this does not include varieties like amethyst.
- The box under "Dimensions" is a rich text box, similar to a program called Wordpad. The buttons above it are used to style the text. From left to right, those are: bold, italic, underline, strikethrough, color, font, and size.
- The box under "Market Value" is a currency box formatted for USD. It's useful for typing money values.
- The box under "GPS Location" will display the text you type as a hyperlink. In view mode, you can click the hyperlink to open the web browser to that page.
Every collection is associated with a template when it is first created. The template affects how entries are displayed and what kind of data ("fields") they store. For example, the default "Primary Mineral Species" is a named text field defined in the template editor.
All entries require an images field so collections and groups can display images.
The name of the template is shown at the top.
Save changes: Click to save any changes made to the template settings or fields.
Cancel: Cancels and discards any changes.
Delete template: Deletes the template and all collections that use it.
Center images: Entries will display images in the center of the content page, regardless of columns.
Entries use one column: The entire layout of the entry uses only one column.
Entries use two columns: The content page is vertically split in half so there is a left and right column for fields.
Title font color: Click the rectangle to set the color of the name of each entry when in view mode.
Content font color: Click the rectangle to set the color of the text for each entry when in view mode.
Font: Click to set the font used for each entry. Arial has been chosen in the screenshot.
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Type text in the box at the top to name a new field. Click the type of field on the left (says "Text" in the screenshot) to change what kind of data you want to store. Press enter on the box after typing a name to create a new field.
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In a one-column layout, all fields are on the left and cannot be moved to the right. In a two-column layout, you can select a field and use the left/right black arrows to change which column the field appears under. You can press delete to delete the field, which affects all entries using that field. You can't delete the field with type "Entry Images" (which is selected in the screenshot).
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Entries will display the fields in the vertical order shown in the template editor. Click the up/down arrows just under the left-column box to change the position of the selected field.
Show this field with entries: You can hide a field entirely so you only see it in edit mode. This is useful for tags, mineral IDs, and searching for particular minerals when filtering in the hierarchy.
Show the field name: You can hide the name of the field, which is useful with images (as shown in the screenshot).
These options are specific to image fields:
Display up to __ extra images: This restricts how many images are shown when there are more uploaded images for an entry. Images are displayed in the order they were uploaded.
Extra images ___ main image: This changes whether images are displayed vertically or horizontally. Above and Left also display them opposite to the order they were uploaded.
The left or right arrowkeys can also be used to change which column the selected field appears under.
Pressing F2 or double-clicking a field can also be used to rename it.
Right-clicking in the left or right column box reveals a menu to rename, delete, or switch columns for the current field.
