LINUS January 1998

CD-ROM Highlights

Using the Singapore Law Reports & Malayan Law Journal on CD-ROM

Karen Yap, Law Library

Singapore Law Reports 1992-1996, as announced in the October 1996 issue of LINUS, has changed in content and title. The coverage for Singapore Law Reports (SLR) is now from 1965 onwards, and for Malayan Law Journal (MLJ) it is from 1932 onwards. The CD is updated three times a year.

SLR contains the full text of all important cases from the Singapore High Court, the Court of Appeal and the Privy Council on Appeal from Singapore.

MLJ covers cases from the Malaysian High Court, Federal Court, Supreme Court, Court of Appeal, the Privy Council on Appeal from Malaysia, and Brunei reports. It does not cover articles, notes or practice directions as in the printed version.

Producers and Software Used

The CD is produced by Butterworths Asia, Singapore and Malayan Law Journal Sdn Bhd, Malaysia. The software used is Folio Bound VIEWS, Version 3.1a.

Certain Features of Folio Bound VIEWS

  1. Menu Bar and Toolbelt Buttons
    These are at the top of the screen. The functions of the toolbelt are activated by clicking the left mouse button. All the functions on the toolbelt may be accessed through the pull-down menu of the menu bar.

  2. Hypertext Links
    These are jump links which allows you to jump instantaneously from one part of the database to related or relevant information in another. The links are indicated by coloured underlined text. The mouse pointer is a hand when it is over the links.

  3. Backtrack Button
    Returns the user one screen at a time through previous searches made and links followed.

  4. Trial Button
    Lists all searches and links since the beginning of the search session. Double-click on an item to return to that point.

Getting into the Database

Insert the CD in the caddy into the CD drive. Double-click on the Bound Views SLR and MLJ icon. Two big boxes appear on the screen; one for SLR and one for MLJ. Double-click on the one you wish to search. You cannot search both together.

Navigating Using the Table of Contents

The Contents button of the toolbelt can be used to browse the database easily. For example, double-click on the SLR box, then on the Contents button. You see the volume numbers of the printed SLR which is in the CD. Each volume number has a + on the left. The + signifies that a lower set of headings exist.

Double-click on the + next to [1997] 1 SLR. You see the list of cases in [1997] 1 SLR. Double-click on the first one, [1997] 1 SLR 1 - Brown Noel Trading Pte Ltd v Donald & McArthy Pte Ltd and you see the full text of the case. Click on the Contents button to bring you back to the list of cases.

The + changes to - once you double-click on it. It shows that the heading has been expanded to a lower level. Double-click on - to go back to the higher level.

Search Techniques

Click on the third button, the Template 1 button of the toolbelt. A dialog box appears.

  1. Field Search
    The dialog box contains a number of fields in which you can search. The fields are Catchword/Topic, Legislation Ref. To, Case Ref. To, Judge's Name, Lawyer,s Name, Case Title and Free Text.

  2. Boolean and Phrase Search
    Boolean operators AND, OR, NOT can be used within each field. A space or & are equivalent to AND. |, usually found on the \ key is equivalent to or, ^ is equivalent to NOT. Phrases must be searched with punctuation marks, e.g. “unjust enrichment”.

  3. Wildcards
    * represents zero or more characters.
    ? represents one character. ? can be typed in as many times as there are character variations.
    E.g. promis?? finds promisee, promisor, promises and promised but not promise. The wildcards can also be embedded. E.g. col*r finds color, colour, collar, etc.

  4. Proximity Search
    You can construct ordered and unordered proximity searches, by using / and @. The words must be typed within punctuation marks, and wildcards cannot be used. E.g. type “drive drink”/20 to search for drive within 20 words of drink and in that order. Where the order of the words does not matter, type “drive drink”@20.

Click on OK after constructing your search sentence.

Viewing the Results

The results does not indicate the total number of occurrences of a word but the number of records containing that word. A record represents either a numbered paragraph or a set of notes, NOT a whole case.

The line at the bottom of the screen tells you which record you are at and which hit you are viewing. Use the Next and Previous buttons of the toolbelt to view all your hits. The citation and title of the case appears on top. A long title gets truncated.

Viewing the Short Format

Click once on the Contents button of the toolbelt to display the table of contents. Select Words Around Hits from the pull-down menu of View of the menu bar. You will see the volume number of the law report that contains the case and part of the sentence containing your search terms. The citation and title cannot be seen at this screen. Double-click on the sentence to revert to the full text. To go back to the short format, click on Contents again.

Another short format you could view is only the records with hits. While viewing the full text, select Records with Hits from the pull-down menu of View. The citation and title still appears at the top. Use the Next and Previous buttons to move to other records. To cancel it, select View again and Records With Hits.

Selecting Text for Printing or Saving on Disk

Text can be selected by their record numbers, by tagging or highlighting.

  1. Record Number
    To select text by their record numbers, click on the beginning of the portion, note down the record number, which is the first number before the / at the line at the bottom. Click on the end of the portion, the record number usually changes. Note down the number. This is a fast way of selecting text, like a long case. However you have to print or save portion by portion.

  2. Tagging
    To tag, click on the text and press F6. You tag one record at a time. Press F6 again to untag it. Tagging can be tedious because a record can be only one line of text. For example, every case in the Cases Referred To : section is one record. If there are 10 cases in the list, you tag 10 times. However, you can select Invert Tags by clicking Invert Tags of the pull-down menu of Edit. The advantage is that you print/save all tagged portions at the same time, and not portion by portion.
    If you want to print or save a new set of tags, click on Edit followed by Clear All Tags before you start tagging again.
    A record can also be a whole section with many paragraphs. If you want to select only one or two paragraphs of a long record, highlight the text.

  3. Highlighting
    To highlight, click on the beginning of the portion you wish to highlight, hold down the mouse button and drag the mouse to the end of the portion, release the button. If you select another portion, the previous portion is no longer highlighted. You would therefore have to print portion by portion. You cannot save highlighted text.

Printing Selected Text
Insert a stored value photocopy card bought from the photocopy vendor into the card reader. Make sure the status of the photocopier is Ready.
Click on File, then Print. A dialog box opens. If you have tagged, Tag should be selected. If you have highlighted, Selection should be selected. If you have chosen record numbers, Records should be selected. Change the numbers in the From and To boxes to the correct ones. Click OK.

Saving on Disk
Click on File then Save As. A dialog box appears. Change the drive to the drive where your disk is (usually a:). Click on Range and another dialog box appears. If you have tagged, make sure the black circle is in front of Tag. If you have chosen record numbers, Records should be selected. Change the numbers in the From and To boxes to the correct ones. Click OK.

You can also choose the file format your file will be saved in. If you choose WordPerfect 6.0 (*.*), your file name must have an extension .txt, for WordPerfect 6.0 (*.WP), it is .WP, for Text (*.*), you do not have to type an extension.

Type in your file name, click OK. A green light appears at the drive where your disk is. A small Export dialog box indicating the progress of the saving appears. If you want to save another portion, you have to give a new file name.

Doing Another Search or Exiting

To do another search, click on the Template 1 button again. To exit, click on the last button, the Exit button.

Viewing a Saved File

At present, WordPerfect 6.0 is not available in NUSNET III, only WordPerfect 6.1. You might have problems viewing the second and subsequent files you saved using WordPerfect 6.0. The indented text might not appear as text. Exiting from the software and getting in again solves the problem.

For files saved using Text (*.*), use Word 6.0c for Windows. Choose Text with Layout or Text when you are prompted 'Convert File From'. Please note Word does not allow you to convert from WordPerfect 6.0.

Other Law Library CD-ROM titles that use Folio Bound VIEWS Software are:

The method of using them is similar to that of SLR/MLJ on CD-ROM.

| Next : Mallal's Digest on CD-ROM | New CD-ROMs in Medical Library |
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LINUS January 1998, The National University of Singapore Library