Getting Started

Much of the BMV will feel like web pages within a browser where you can point and click to do much of the navigation. Please take a few moments and get an idea of the different menu options and program features. There are detailed help topics for all features, with the following some "Getting Started Hints":

I have tried to "anticipate" the next viewing action depending on context. For example, if your search window shows a list of matches, instead of point/click/back/next, just click "Next Match" and then hit the <Space> key to cycle through all matches. Same when viewing pages of a given magazine issue. After you click on "Next Page" or "Prev Page", just keep hitting <Space> Try the "Individual Page Thumbnails" button when viewing a specific magazine issue, showing thumbnail images for all pages. While likely too small to read actual text this provides a quick visual snapshot of all pages, and many times enough to find that article you remember but just can't remember exact month or title. Chris Taylor requested this feature way back in 2006 and this is one of my favorite features of BMV. The BMV 4.0 release now allows limited user control over the display image size, allowing for scaled larger images. BMV 4.0 introduces right-click popup menus for all windows. This menu has quick "jump to the items" owner types, for example, if viewing a specific page, can now quick jump to the page's month, year, or magazine. Similar, there are now "last viewed" of a given type. Stop/restart BMV you can right-click and return to the last content viewed from previous session. Please separate navigation help topic with more details. Other favorites are being able to search by either "Author" of a given article or ability to search for "Only if also includes photo". The following is example search for "krueger special" but only pages that show a photo. With BMV 3.1 there are new "Tools -> Show Author Statistics" and "Tools -> Show Content Statistics" provides some interesting numbers, especially collectors who have attempted to document much about the hobby. If you encounter any bugs with this software, or you have an idea for a feature that could help viewing this vast quantity of information, absolutely please let me know at randy@mbcinfo.com and I will do my best to make the BMV a better product. Happy viewing!!!