The software will then ask you to navigate through your drive and directory structure to locate the name of the textbase that you wish to check. After you have nominated a textbase to check, recent versions of DB/TextWorks (version 5.0 or later) will present you with the following dialog box:

(Versions earlier than 5.0 do not give you the option of rebuilding damaged indexes.)

You should tick the Repair Structural Problems option and the Rebuild Damaged Indexes option, which will ensure that the software will fix any structural or indexing faults that it finds. Note that you can nominate how many damaged indexes you will allow DB/TextWorks to repair for you. It is wise to leave this option at "1" — if the number of indexes to repair is more than 2, you are best advised to use the Recover Textbase operation (see below).

Now click OK and the software will prompt you for a password if your textbase is controlled by a password. Enter the password and you will be asked to name a problem report file into which DB/TextWorks can write a report on its checking operations. The default file extension is .CHK. You should give the file a meaningful name (for example, CAT010902 for a Catalog textbase that is being checked on 1 September 2002) and save it into the folder in which the textbase itself is located. This will make it easy to find the Check file if you need to look at it in the future.

Click Save and the check procedure will run. For a small textbase, it should take a matter of seconds; larger textbases can take several minutes to run. DB/TextWorks will provide you with a progress report on your screen that enables you to see what has been checked and how many errors have been found. In most cases there will be no errors and you can be confident that your textbase and its files are clean. If the program finds any errors that it is capable of repairing, it will do so and will give you a report on how many errors were found and repaired. However, if more serious problems are found, the software will tell you what these problems are and how you can best repair them yourself. You may need to check your manual or the on-screen Help resources for assistance with running these repairs.

The check program may recommend that you run the Recover Textbase command. If this is the case click here for instructions.

Remember that it is advisable to back up your textbases regularly. Before you run a backup, run the Check Textbase program so that you can be assured that your backup copy is clean. For more information on backing up textbases, click here.

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