About Databases

Zoot employs a multiple database storage model and provides a browser-like interface which lets you work with an unlimited number of databases simultaneously. Zoot comes with a number of built-in databases (called Desktop Databases) to handle the most common information management functions and you can create an unlimited number of your own custom databases.

In addition to the Desktop Databases, which always remain just a click away, you can create an unlimited number of your own customized databases. As you create new databases, you may also choose to group them into projects. A project is simply a group of related databases. When you create a project, Zoot creates a corresponding file folder on disk in which to store the database files for the project. This makes it easier to manage these related database files.

The Zoot Desktop displays the contents of one database at a time, but you can open multiple databases and cycle between them by clicking the Go Back button repeatedly (or Ctrl+F6), or you can click the DownArrow [v] next to the Go Back button to select from a pop-up list of all open databases.

To open a database, click the Open button on the toolbar (or press Ctrl+O) and Zoot will display a pop-up menu of databases. These are the databases currently assigned to the active project.


Database File Storage
Every Zoot database has its own file on your disk drive. This storage scheme has a number of benefits:

·

Database file sizes remain manageable. In most cases you will be able to zip up your database files and copy them onto a standard 1.44mb floppy disk for easy transport. In fact, Zoot provides built-in tools to do this (see Database Manager elsewhere in this help file).

·

You can micro-manage vast quantities of information. Information stores can grow over years or even decades without losing the ability to micro-manage information.

·

You can create "archive" databases without losing access to the archived data. Zoot let's you work with archive databases as you would any other Zoot database.