The Select feature lets you create a subset of your datafile containing all records that have characteristics in common. You can use Select, for instance, to group all the records containing a certain keyword, or all the records by a particular author, or all the records which were published in specific journal.

To select a subset of records:

1. Click Tools, Select. The Select dialog will display.
2. Choose the field to search for the text in the First Condition.
3. Choose whether the field Contains or Does Not Contain the text.
4. Enter the Text to match for the First Condition.
5. Check your preferences for Match Case and Match Whole Word.
6. Define a Second Condition if that is appropriate.
7. Click OK to begin selecting records in the datafile.
8. When the Select is completed, the Select Finished dialog box will display, offering you the following options:
   • Choose Retrieve to open the subset of records as an untitled datafile.
   • Choose Append to add the subset datafile to another datafile.
   • Choose Save As to assign a name to the subset datafile and save it to disk.
   • Choose Cancel to abandon the subset datafile without saving.

To select Tagged records:

Check Tagged as the condition for the select, and then choose OK.

IMPORTANT
When you have finished selecting records from your datafile, make certain you assign a new name for the datafile, so that your original datafile is not overwritten.

We recommend assigning a filename with an .sel extension.

For instance, if the name of your datafile is biblio.dat, the subset datafile should be named biblio.sel. Or, if you have selected a subset of records with a particular term, you might want to name the subset accordingly (e.g., history.sel).

You can use the Bibliography feature to write citations for the records in the subset datafile.