If you are installing from CD start here. If you downloaded Ideas Genie from the internet, go to 2.

1     Installing
Ideas Genie has an auto installer. Insert the Ideas Genie CD into the drive. The system will attempt to start the Auto Installer. Please wait, as this may take up to 30 secs. The Install screen should appear. The Auto Installer will present you with a number of prompt screens during the procedure. Don’t worry, you don’t have ANY decisions to make. Your response is very simple. Click a series of next and finish buttons to install the software. Do NOT change any settings. Please read the End User Licence agreement when presented during installation.

2    Starting Ideas Genie
When installed, the Ideas Genie Icon will appear on your desktop. The icon is a pink flower (Camellia ‘Debbie’ if you are interested.
Start Ideas Genie by clicking on the Ideas Genie Icon. You will get a message advising you that Ideas Genie is not registered. Press OK and continue. (You don’t need to register yet)

3     The Ideas Genie Menu.

The menu now has three modes of display. a) Amateur System   b) Full System  c) Full system with photo.
All three modes are available to the user. The modes are selected by means of a group of Radio Buttons.

a) Amateur System
Ideas Genie will present this display mode on first start up. The body of the screen displays option buttons for a sub set of Ideas Genie programs. The programs selected for this sub set are suitable for the beginner and for the majority of Amateur Gardeners.

b) Change the Menu mode to “Full System” by clicking on the Radio Button.
In Full System mode all Ideas Genie programs are selected for use from the menu options at the top of the screen.

c) Change the Menu mode to “Photo” by clicking on the Radio Button.
The photo used is Camellia ‘Debbie’, the same photo as used for the Ideas Genie Icon on the desktop.
In Photo mode all Ideas Genie programs are selected for use from the menu options at the top of the screen.

More info about the Menu displays
You can change the photo if you wish to personalise your installation. In the Photo mode, simply click on the “Get Photo” button and find a photo on your own computer. A photo with a high resolution will absorb memory and may be slow to load. Choose a photo with a small disk size and with sufficiently good resolution to look good.
You will have the option to make the selected photo appear each time you start up.
You can change the photo again at any time.

Get familiar with the GAnnn portion of the Program Names. In particular be aware of this:

The programs on the Amateur Menu are repeated on the Full Menu (under Menu tabs along the top of the screen)
Example. You will find “Slide Show-Garden Photos-GA014” on the Amateur System display mode. You will also find exactly the same program under the “Programs” tab on the main Menu.

The Full System Menu - Description of the Tabs
The System tab.
Programs under this tab are used for System Maintenance functions. (Fle paths, Backups, configuration, etc) This tab also has an Exit option to allow you to close the Ideas Genie application. Use the Exit button at all times for normal shut down of Ideas Genie.

The Edit tab.
Copy and Paste options for use in the Ideas Genie programs with features for downloading photographs from the internet.

The Files tab
Support files for the Ideas Genie application. All of these files are user configurable. The purpose of each file is fairly obvious. Follow the Tutorials on your first attempt to use the programs under this pad.

The Amateur tab
Action Programs for Amateurs.

The Programs tab.
Action programs.

The Reports tab
Self explanatory

The Help tab
Help, Tutorials, About Ideas Genie, Register your product, and more

The Register tab
Licence agreement details and Programs with links to our website to link to purchase and register the Ideas Genie software.

Get familiar with the system before registering. You may add up to 40 plants to the “Skeleton” database before registration is required. (See choosing a database)


4    Amateur System Programs versus Full System Programs
The Plant Data entry program (GA027) on the Amateur System menu use “fixed format” fields. NO configuration is needed.

There are two more advanced Plant Data entry programs on the Full System, GA004 and GA022.
GA004 is Garden Area related. It is the most commonly used program in the system.
GA022 is a special program for the database builder with special features relating to the entry of plant data.
Both these programs allow configuration to cope with the multitude of combinations of Plant Culture/Plant Property classifications and Plant Care.
The system ships with the most common Culture, Property and Care classifications defined. These can be edited, translated to another language, or deleted. New classifications can be added as needed.

GA027 allows you to find Plants in you database using an A-Z set of buttons.Clicking on B will list all plants beginning with B. You must then search the list for the required plant. Clicking on the ALL button will list all plants in the database. Arrow buttons allow you to quickly skip from A to B to C etc. This is fine for a small database although I have tested it successfully with 8000 plants.
The new and very important feature in this program (GA027) is the ability to enter the full (botanical) name for a plant in one line. Hence, if you have plant labels attached to your plants on purchase, knowledge of the Botanical structure of names is not required.
However, as you type (or paste a plant name) in the Plant Name field the Genus, Species, Sub-species and Cultivar elements of the plant name are derived by Ideas Genie in adjacent fields.
These fields should be observed, as this is a great tutoring system. The beginner will quickly develop an appreciation of the botanical structure of plant names.
This program also allows you to print a plant Fact Sheet, with (optionally) a photo of the plant. You can define a “Main” or “Best” photo as a default and you have the option of selecting another photo before you print.
These features are not (yet) incorporated into the Full System programs described below.

In GA004 and GA022 (Programs Tab in the Full System) a more sophisticated Plant finder allows you locate Plants by Genus name or by Cultivar name. When you find a Genus, all the plants in that one genus are listed.
Common Names are included for completeness but these programs are designed for use with plants with botanical names.
These two programs require Plant Names to be added in the form Genus, Species, Sub-species and Cultivar. Plants with a Common name ONLY can also be entered but this is non preferred.

5    To close the Ideas Genie application at any time:-
If you are using an Ideas Genie program then close it by using Done or Escape buttons as applicable.
You will be returned to the Ideas Genie Menu.
Click on the Exit button on the screen.
You can also click on the Ideas Genie "System" menu pad then click "Exit" on the drop down list or the x button at the top right of the screen.

ALWAYS USE THE EXIT BUTTON TO CLOSE THE IDEAS GENIE APPLICATION.
YOU RUN THE RISK OF DAMAGING FILES IF YOU TURN YOUR COMPUTER OFF WHEN AN IDEAS GENIE
PROGRAM IS RUNNING.

More about Quitting programs
Done, Escape and Quit buttons are always located in the bottom right corner of screens.

A special Ideas Genie feature allows you to rapid exit a program. Ideas Genie screens cascade as you take options during the execution of a program. You can “back out” by clicking Done, Done etc as you back out. In most programs with cascading screens, if you RIGHT CLICK on a Done or Escape button Ideas Genie does this for you.
Another trick is to roll the wheelie mouse over a Done or Escape button. This will take you back to the INITIAL screen of a program
This are very useful features. You seen in in Ideas Genie first!!

6    You can't wait to try it out? Try this:

In Amateur System mode, click on "Slide Show – Garden Photos - GA014". You do not need to change any settings when the program starts up. Simply click on the "GO" button. The Garden Photos (photos of more than one plant) included with the database are presented to you at a rate of one every 3 seconds.
Note that there are more Garden Photos included with the “Mini database” (CD installation) than in the “Skeleton Database” (Free Download installation)

When the slide show finishes, click on the "Quit" button to return to the Ideas Genie menu.

If you wish to run the other slide show, then look for "Slide Show – Plant Photos - GA023". Again, you do not need to change any settings when the program starts up. Simply click on the "GO" button. The Plant Photos (photos of individual plants) included with the installed database are presented to you at a rate of one every 3 seconds.

7    HELP topics
After that little aside, lets get on with the exercise!
Locate and run the program “Help Topics - GA002”.
Read ALL the Topics. They’re actually quite brief.
Pay particular attention to these 4 Topics:-

“Program, screen and report naming Convention”
We have our reasons for what one user described as "cryptic" program names. Read how Screen names and Report names relate to Program Names and how these names help you to refer precisely to any element of the system when seeking support.

“Help Icons and their use”
ESSENTIAL READING. PLEASE LEARN HOW TO USE HELP ICONS
When you click on this topic the Example button at the bottom of the screen is enabled. Click on it and learn how to use the Help Icon which appears on many screens in the Ideas Genie system.

This step is essential if you wish to learn how to use the inbuilt Ideas Genie Help facility correctly.

“Instruction abbreviations”
A scheme to cut down on Instruction text e.g. HELP > Tutorials below!

“Tutorials”
ESSENTIAL READING. PLEASE LEARN HOW TO DO TUTORIALS
Read how to do tutorials. Numerous tutorials are prepared to guide you through the operation of the Ideas Genie system and show you the full features available in the system.

8    RUNNING TUTORIALS
This step is ABSOLUTELY ESSENTIAL. PLEASE read it entirely. Repeat if necessary.
Locate and run the program “Tutorials - GA001”

As soon as the program starts, the first and most important tutorial is already selected. It’s on… tutorials!

Simply click on the “Step 3 – Click here” button. Screen GA001S04 appears. Follow the instructions in the edit boxes. It is essential that you understand all the powerful features of this little screen as explained in these items.

 9    Preferences
Configure your preferences to your liking. (e.g. Metric/ Imperial measurements, Language, Currency, Date Format). This screen is fairly simple.
Note: If you wish to move on to the Full System, remove the check in the “Amateur” check box. You can reset this either way at any time.
Remember to Save your settings before quitting the program.

10     Evaluating the system.

We recommend you examine the programs in the Amateur System screen in detail before proceeding to the other items on the Full System menu.

Please use the tutorials to learn initially.
Take note of the name of the program which you wish to use.
Start up the Tutorial program and find the list of tutorials applicable to that program.
The tutorials for each program are arranged sequentially in a recommended order for you to learn the program. Simply do each one in turn.
After you do a tutorial, try and do the exercise again, this time without the aid of the tutorial.

Remember, in the tutorials Program GA001, the top left pane in the screen GA001S01 contains a list of all programs, the top right pane describes the selected program, the bottom left pane contains a list of all the tutorials for the selected program. The bottom right pane describes the selected tutorial.

When you click the button to begin the tutorial a screen appears offering you the option to PRINT the tutorial steps. When you close this screen, the tutorial selection program ends leaving the selected tutorial “primed”. Now watch closely. Ideas Genie will automatically click on the Menu  options to start up the selected program and you click on the tutorial icons in the program to follow the simple instructions.

Print the tutorials to begin with so you have a reference to all the steps in hard copy.
 

Next step? You are ready to add plants and photos of your own.
If you have PURCHASED Ideas Genie and have a LICENCE Number, then proceed to the page:
“Registering Ideas Genie”. Click here.

If you are EVALUATING Ideas Genie, proceed to the page:
“Choosing a database” . Click here.