Zoot Databases

While most information managers store all of your information in a single database file, Zoot is designed to manage information across multiple databases. This design lets you work with large quantities of information without worrying about a single database file growing to an unmanageable size. Zoot features a browser-like interface which lets you quickly switch between open databases.

Zoot ships with a number of built-in databases called Desktop Databases, which are designed to handle the most common information management functions. You can see the Desktop Databases running across the top of your screen (Tasks, Calendar, Contacts, Mail etc.). The Desktop Databases are provided to give you one-click access to the frequently-used information typically stored in these databases. Zoot also lets you create an unlimited number of your own custom databases to store information related to other areas of your work or play.

Every Zoot database is comprised of a single file with a .ZOT file extension. Each of these .ZOT files comprises a self-contained database which can be transported from one computer to another. Zoot can also synchronize the contents of databases across a local area network (LAN). Although Zoot makes use of multiple database files, at any given moment you'll be working with a single database, and this is called the active database. The name of the active database is displayed in Zoot's application titlebar, along with the name of the active project. If you're working with the Contacts database, for instance, the titlebar will read:

Zoot · Startup · Contacts.zot (from Desktop)

In this instance, Startup is the name of the active project and Contacts.zot is the active database. Desktop is shown in parenthesis to tell you that the Contacts.zot file is stored in a file folder called Desktop. To see the full path to the Contacts.zot database file, hover your mouse pointer over Zoot's application titlebar for a few seconds and the path will be displayed for as long as you hover there. To see the active database file using Windows Explorer, choose Tools | Windows Explorer from the main menu (or press Ctrl+F8). Zoot will launch Explorer and navigate to the file folder in which the active database resides. These methods should give you a sense of where your database is being stored physically on your computer's disk drive.

Since Zoot is a database browser, it's very simple to browse among your databases:

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To access a Desktop Database, simply click the corresponding button on the toolbar Tasks, Calendar, Contacts, Mail etc.).

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To open any other database, click the Open button, located on the far left side of the toolbar (or press Ctrl+O). Zoot will display a pop-up menu of your databases. The initial pop-up menu will list the Desktop Databases and any other databases currently open. To access a database not currently open, choose Project and the menu will expand to display all other available databases in the active project.

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To cycle through databases you've already opened, click the Go Back button (located on the far right side of the toolbar) repeatedly, or press Ctrl+F6. To see a list of open databases, click the small DownArrow [v] next to the Go Back button and Zoot will display a menu to choose from.

Database Selection
One of the key steps in processing information with Zoot is database selection. Whether you're clipping information from another application or entering it directly in Zoot, the first step in the process is to decide where (in which database) to store it. This decision isn't critical, since you can easily move data from one Zoot database to another, but it's more efficient to get it right the first time.

A key question to ask yourself when deciding where to store information is "Where will I intuitively look for this information two months from now?". For some data types the answer is easy: If you're creating a task item, the Tasks database is the obvious choice. If you're keeping a diary, the Journal database makes sense. Zoot even provides a database called Atoms, which serves as a kind of catch-all database for when you're not quite sure where to put something. After some time working with Zoot you will become quite adept at selecting the best database for your data.

One other consideration when selecting a database is that Rules, Actions, Views, Filters and Quick Queries work within a single database only, so typically you'll want to keep related data in a single database so that you can use these tools to help you manage the data.