After starting the application, the main window in Office 2007 look & feel pops up. You may customize colours and sound effects on the page "Options".

Edit window

Clicking on the button "Single", you enter the edit window. Here you can create, edit, delete and search for records. You will see that there are already two example records; these can be removed at any time. In the field “annotations”, you can enter comments and ideas concerning a reference. This information, as any other, will be stored in the BibTeX file on export, but it will not appear in the references when running BibTeX. The same is true for the field “Code”, where you can enter information about your personal document storage system. The field “note”, however, is an official BibTeX field.

Since WibTeX version 5.0, you can drag & drop files directly from the Windows Explorer in the field “Url”. A click on the new link will start the linked application (or direct your standard browser to the web site).

Necessary fields and unique keys

Necessary is only the bold typed fields "Key", "Document" und "Year", though there is little sense in leaving fields like "Author" empty if it is not an anonymous text. Please note that the key MUST be unequivocal. Otherwise, WibTeX will ask you to change the name. If you want to change the key later, click on the icon next to the "Key" field.

The search function

To look up any entry in any field from inside the edit window, click on the “Search” field and enter a search text, or press CTRL-F. A search function is also available in list view, see above.

Note that even incomplete words can be searched for. You can use the wildcard '?'. A question mark precisely replaces one character. (The asterisk wildcard "*" is added automatically, do not use this character.) For example, entering "hel" will deliver “hello”, and "?ello" will give you the same. Upon entering a writing mistake, however, e.g. “helo”, WibTeX will not find anything. Therefore, it is better to enter less if unsure about the exact word or phrase.

Clicking again on the “Search” button will find further records corresponding to the entry if they exist. To go back to where you started from, click on the red cross.

List view: selection and processing records

This button will bring you to a "list" view of the database. It is mainly intended to give you a quick overview or to export the contents of the database. You can freely modify the display of the grid by adapting the size of the columns to your needs or by deciding what columns you want to have displayed. Clicking on the column headers will sort the list according to that column and select the best fitting width. Data can be searched for by selecting a field from the combo list box and typing the search string into the green field. You may also select records by clicking with the mouse on them while holding down the Ctrl key. Alternatively, you can select by holding down the Shift key and using the mouse or arrow keys to extend the selection. Selected rows can be edited, deleted or exported to BibTeX and other formats. You may also export the entire list as shown in formats such as Word, Excel, CSV, or as Web Page (HTML).

In order to quickly jump to a record, just hit the first letter of the expression you are searching for. WibTeX will search in the column that is currently selected in the search/filter region below the table.

Since version 7.4, keyword management functions have been added. Click on the icon with keys in front of a yellow filter to get started. A box with the keywords present in the database will pop up on the right border. (You may adapt the width with the mouse.) Double-clicking on a keyword will filter the records. Conversely, when selecting records, the corresponding keywords will be marked in the list box. You may add or delete keywords from the database, too, without switching to the single view.

See "Program - Part II" for more information on the program functions.