Learning about Vinoté+Plus.

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A concise course to help you understand the program.

As a new user of Vinoté+Plus, you will be unaware of the many features of this comprehensive wine and cellar management program. To allow you to gradually absorb the depth of the program and benefit from it, the following are sequential steps to learning more.

As the program is fully configurable, you don’t have to take all the steps on your first use of it. Work into the program gradually gaining confidence as you go.

We have yet to find an easier wine and cellar management system.

Session one.

1. Once you have installed Vinoté+Plus, worked your way through the <Configuration Wizard> and selected your source of Neck-tags, you are ready to start.

2. Using the <Insert> button, enter a wine or two, making sure your spelling is correct.

3. Go to <Setup>/<Configuration Wizard> on a few occasions to ensure that Vinoté+Plus is set up to exactly suit your requirements.

4. If you have not ordered your Vinoté Neck-tags, go to <Orderform> to purchase your first box now. Your 30 virtual tags will be soon used up.

FAQ.

“I cannot see my entire screen. In particular I cannot see the Vinoté number”.

Your screen resolution is probably incorrectly set. Go to <Help>/<Three Golden Rules of Vinoté+Plus>. It is worth reading these three rules anyway.

“The Neck-tag number is not showing correctly”.

If you have a box of tags, go to <Setup>/<Vinoté Number> and enter the first tag number from your box. Do not include the alphabetical letter. If you have inadvertently clicked the wrong source of Neck-tags and wish to start again, you can safely delete the folder C:/VinotePlus and re-install the program.

“When I enter wine details and click <OK> the page of data is not stored”.

You have missed entering data into one of the <Required> fields. Go back to those fields and enter data. If you find that you don’t want to always have data in this field, go to <Setup>/<Configuration Wizard> and change the settings.

“I have spelled a word incorrectly, how do I correct this”?

Go to <Setup>/<Lookups>. Select the field you wish to go to, click on the incorrect entry, then click on Change. This same process is used when you want to change information relating to a winery or any other pre recorded data.

“I have changed the data on one wine but the data has not changed for similar wines in the database”.

There is one of two possible causes.

If you have chosen not to use Barcodes, your wines will not be linked. Go to <Help>/<Wine Details Screen> and read the note regarding Barcodes.

If you have not set up your <Cascade> options in <Setup>/<Configuration Wizard> correctly, the data will not cascade down to the other similar wines.

 

Session two.

Some short cut keystrokes.

1. Double clicking on a wine in the Wine Browse Screen will open that wine data up to the Wine Details Screen.

2. Moving from field to field is normally carried out using the TAB key, however you can use your mouse or if you wish you can use the ENTER key. Using the ENTER key does however only take you to the fields which are <Required>.

3. Typing a few letters into a field entry will bring up the nearest spelling from the lookups.

4. The ESCAPE key will generally take you back one screen.

With some wines loaded, it is time to use some of your viewing functions.

1. Start by using the Sorting Tabs, found at the base of the Wine Browse Window. Click on one of these Tabs. You will notice that the wine list will change order as each Tab instructs the program to sort to the data in the selected column.

2. You can take this further by using the Data Entry Box on the left hand side just above the Sorting Tabs. Click on this box, type in the first few letters of a name you wish to look for, then hit the TAB key. The first entry of what you are seeking will be highlighted.

3. If you do not like the relative positions of the columns you can move these. Simply place your mouse on the heading of the column and drag it left or right.

FAQ

“When I enter a few letters in the Data Entry Box the program does not respond”.

You probably hit the ENTER key rather than the TAB key.

“When I click on one of the Sorting Tabs, nothing happens”.

There is a quirk in the program in that if you have inadvertently clicked on one of the column headings, you will have set a sort function for this column, which over rides the Sorting Tabs. Left click on the offending column heading and select <Key Sequence>.

 

Session Three.

The Query function.

This is a powerful tool that you will have to get to grips with. To read about how to use this go to <Help>/<Instructions>/<Wine Browse Screen> and scroll down to the Query heading. Once you have learnt how to use the Query function, you will find yourself turning to it all the time. It is important to note that having run a Query, all the other function buttons will only relate, display and report on the wines selected.

A couple of practice runs.

Let’s find all the Cabernet Sauvignon wines in the cellar.

1. Click on <Query>.

2. Click on <Query Settings>.

3. In the <Variety> line, type in Cabernet Sauvignon (The function is case sensitive so get the spelling and your Capitals correct). Note - if you wanted to find all your Cabernet based wines you would type in Cabernet* for a wild card search.

4. Click on the little box on the right until it displays the = sign.

5. Click <OK>

Presented on the Wine Browse Screen are all your Cabernet Sauvignons.

Now let’s go further to find all your Cabernet Sauvignons with vintages 2000 and older.

1. Click on <Query>.

2. Click on <Query Settings>.

3. In the Vintage line, type in 2000

4. Click on the little box on the right until it displays <=

Presented on the Wine Browse Screen are your Cabernet Sauvignons older than 2001.

For the moment let’s save this Query so you can use it again.

1. Click on <Query>.

2. Type in a name for your query - Sav B older than 2001

3. Click on the <Save> button.

Now we will clear the query by clicking on the <Clear> button.

The full list of all your wines will again be shown on the Wine Browse Screen.

Lastly we will prove that the Query remembers your saved settings.

1. Click on <Query>.

2. Click on <Sav B older than 2001>

3. Click on <Load> to see the settings are correct.

4. Click on <OK>.

From this point you can use other functions to work with these wines only, see below.

Remember to Clear your Query at the end of the exercise, otherwise you will start to panic that some of your wines have gone missing.

If you are having difficulty with the Query Feature, remember you are only reporting on the data you have entered. You will never damage that data, so you can keep playing with it until you get it right. If you need help beyond what is available in the help screens you are welcome to email help@vinote.com

Having grasped the way the system works you are then free to load in all the Queries you will regularly need. Particularly useful are queries for wine available to drink selected by category, price, drink by year or rating, or any combination of these.

 

Session Four.

Let’s look at some of the buttons along the base of the Wine Browse screen.

<Print>. This button takes you into printing the standard Vinoté Cellar List of wines displayed on the screen. Use the Query function to select the wines you wish to print. There is an explanation in <Help>/<Instructions>/<Wine Browse Screen> as to how this can be used.

<Graph> and <Totals>. These two buttons report on the wines currently displayed on the screen.

<Export to CSV>. This option will export the displayed wines to a spreadsheet file, where you can further manipulate the data or create your own reports.

<Quick Look> and <Quick Remove>. These two buttons allow for the instant lookup of any Vinoté Neck-tag number. A bar code reader adds enormously to the speed and accuracy of these two options.

<Change>, <Delete> and <Remove Wine>. These buttons allow you to deal with the wine you have highlighted.

FAQ

“Do I have to use the Vinoté Stationary for my Cellar Lists”?

No, you can print on any paper. The Vinoté Stationary is designed to fit in the Vinoté Folder, which makes a nice presentation.

“How does the order of wines come out on the Cellar List”?

The wines are presented in alphabetical order of variety and then in order of winery.

“How do I stop the Winery name being repeated as a Brand name, in the Cellar List”?

If the Winery name is entered into your data in exactly the same format as the Brand name, the report will only print the name once. To change the Winery name to conform with this, go to <Setup>/<Lookups>/<Winery>, highlight the Winery to change and select <Change>.

“I don’t want others to see how much wine I have. How can I stop this”?

Go to <Setup>/<Configuration Wizard> and introduce a password protection.

“How do I change a removed wine back to show as a wine in my cellar”?

Make sure all wines are displayed, by clicking on <Display Wines Removed> at the base of the Browse screen; highlight the removed wine; click on the <Change> button and delete the information which indicates the wine has been removed.

 

Session Five.

Let’s look at some of the buttons at the top of your screen.

<View Wines>. Click on this and you will find two options. The default is to view the <Wines> Browse Screen, which you have been working in most of the time. The alternative is to view the <Barcodes> Browse Screen. Here the fields that relate to the barcode on the bottle, or your virtual barcode, are displayed. By viewing this screen you can get to understand how the barcode indexing works within Vinoté+Plus.

<Reports>. The two reports are printouts of all wines in your cellar. You have no configuration control over them.

The <Valuation> report is useful for insurance.

The <Location> report is designed to work with the printed Cellar List. You select your wine from the Cellar List and refer to the Location list to go to the correct part of your cellar to find the wine. Ideal for restaurants and large cellars.

<Order Form>. Click here to order your Vinoté products.

<Setup>. We have visited this before. Those we have not discussed include the -

<Update Software> option, which takes you to the Vinoté web site to pick up the latest version of the program.

<Register>, which you may use if you wish, but presently has no real value.

<Window>. This will display the normal Windows options as well as displays of any previously selected Wine or Barcode Browse Screens.

<Help>. You are encouraged to browse the <Help> topics and <What’s New> to get more insight into the program.

 

Session Six.

Recording tasting notes and label images.

Vinoté+Plus has the ability to record Your Tasting Notes, Others Tasting Notes and Label Images.

Recording “Your Tasting Notes”.

1. Select a wine and bring it up on the Wine Details Screen.

2. Click on the <Notes> Tab.

3. Type in your notes for this wine.

4. You can retain these notes for the single bottle enjoyed or, if the wine carries a barcode and there are other similar wines, you will have the option of cascading the information to all of them.

Recording “Others Notes”.

1. If you have entered the web site of a winery, you will see the option to go to that web site.

2. Click on the <Winery Web Page> button and, when on line, find your way to the winemakers tasting notes.

3. Highlight these notes, right click on the highlighted material and choose Copy.

4. Back in Vinoté+Plus, click on the <Notes> Tab and then on the <Paste Clipboard> button in the bottom left hand corner.

5. You can now see how Others Notes are recorded, using the Copy and Paste options, and you can apply this procedure to any tasting notes displayed on a Web Site or other source. If you wish to type in your own versions of Others Notes, you are obliged to type them up in a word processor, then use the Copy and Paste procedure.

6. If you now print out a Cellar List, you will see that Others Notes are included in the list.

Recording the Label or bottle Image.

This procedure is the same as for Others Notes. You copy the image from a Web Site or other source and using the <Paste Clipboard> button the image will transfer to a page with the Tab of <Image>.

 

The future.

You have now worked your way into the most valuable parts of the Vinoté+Plus program.

From now on your learning will be the endless quest for more information on wines and their infinite diversity of regions, varieties, vintages and wineries. Vinoté+Plus will simply help you record your wine and the information you glean and then allow you to select and find your chosen wine, with ease.

If you have any suggestions as to how the program could be improved or wish to learn more about caring for your wine or your cellar, please email help@vinote.com