To enter a telephone number into the directory, first press Control I to insert it before the current entry, or Control A to add it at the bottom of the list, or click one of the corresponding toolbar buttons.

The store item dialogue box opens with all fields blank and the insertion cursor in the Name box. Type in a name for the number, usually the name of the person or organisation to which it belongs. You can include spaces, almost any characters, but not comma (",") or colon (":"), because WintextCom uses these symbols as field separators when it displays the directory.

When you have typed in the name, move to the Information box by clicking in it or pressing the Tab key. The dialogue box contains an Insert or Add button, depending on which option you chose; you can click this button or press ENTER instead of moving to the Information box as above if you want to fill in the box with the information of the directory entry that was current when you invoked the store dialogue, which can be a useful feature for creating a new entry based upon an existing adjacent entry. Similarly, if you activate the button when the Name box is empty, it is filled in with the name field of the current entry underneath the dialogue box. Activating the button when both boxes contain text saves the new entry.

To create a 'phone number entry, the text in the Information box should be the 'phone number itself. You can include spaces or hyphens to separate groups of digits, brackets - "()" - around groups of digits, and the "#" symbol. A comma can also be used to specify a half-second pause in dialling, which is useful in situations such as when dialling through an exchange where a delay is required after a prefix; use consecutive commas to increase the length of the pause. You should not include other characters in a telephone number, or it will not be recognised by WintextCom and automatic dialling will not work.

When you have entered the name and 'phone number, activate the Insert or Add button with a left mouse click or by pressing ENTER. The new entry is created in the directory and becomes the current entry when the dialogue box has closed. The updated list is automatically saved on computer disk, there is no need to explicitly save changes. If you decide not to create the entry, press Escape or click the Cancel button to abort the process, the dialogue closes and the original current entry remains current.

You can press Control V in any of the edit boxes to paste in the contents of the Windows clipboard. If you have the number on the clipboard, however, you can press Control V in the directory itself to create a new entry from the clipboard.

Notice that the indicator "tel." has been placed after the name, separated by a comma. This is called the entry description or item type. The store dialogue box has another edit box called "Item type" after the Information box. If you do not enter text in this field, WintextCom automatically fills it in according to what the entry in the Information field appears to be - in this case, a telephone number. You can specify a different description, or choose not to have a description field at all by entering a colon (":") on its own in the Item type box. The description is not normally used to identify the information type, though it is possible to associate descriptions with actions, overriding the default behaviour for a given type. Changing the description can sometimes be desirable; for example, if you are storing personal details, a bank card number would be interpreted as a telephone number and WintextCom may actually dial it if set up for automatic dialling! Altering the description will not prevent this, but you can put a double quotation mark before the number to turn it into a "text item", which means it is treated as information only, never executed (but still retrievable).

You can also store a number in the directory straight from another application by selecting it in that application and pressing WindowsKey+C (or Control+WindowsKey+C if WindowsKey+C is used by another process). The directory is displayed for you to navigate to where you want to store the number. When you open the store item dialogue to insert, add or modify, the Information box is filled in with the number you had selected.

To change a telephone number after it has been stored, highlight the directory entry and press Control M, or click the Modify toolbar button. The store item dialogue box opens with the edit boxes filled in with the current information. The dialogue box has a Modify button instead of Insert or Add, which you activate by left clicking it or pressing ENTER after you have made your changes. The insertion cursor is initially in the Information box, on the basis that the number is more likely to need changing than the name, but if you do need to change the name or description, you can move to the required fields using the mouse or Tab/Shift Tab. If you decide not to make changes, press Escape or click Cancel, otherwise, use the Modify button to save the changes.

To delete a telephone number entry (or any other kind of entry), select it and press the Delete key (DEL), or click th Delete toolbar button. A message box comes up asking you to confirm that you do wish to delete the entry. Click the Yes button or press letter "y" to confirm, and the entry is removed from the directory. The changes are saved immediately. When the message box appears, pressing ENTER will not cause deletion, it selects the No button; you can press the Tab key to select the Yes button, and then press ENTER to confirm deletion instead of pressing letter "y", but being unable to use ENTER initially helps to avoid accidental loss of information.

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Storing a Telephone Number