After the installation, you are ready to go. Open a shell, go to the directory where you installed BIXTEP and enter:
sh bixtep.sh -f notes.xml

If you are using Ubuntu 6.10 or newer, this may fail. As a solution, use the following command:
/bin/bash/ bixtep.sh -f notes.xml

(you can enter any other filename instead of "notes.xml" for your xml datafile)

Adding your first item

1. In the main menu, press "a" to enter the add item dialog.
2. Choose an item type by pressing the corresponding number.
3. Enter the title of your new item.
4. Enter the content of your new item. You can either input a single line and confirm by pressing enter or press enter while the line is empty. In the latter case, your default editor will start and you can enter a multi-line text. When you finish entering the text, save the file and exit your editor to go back to BIXTEP.
5. You can ignore this point if you have chosen an item type other than "excerpt". If your chosen item type is "excerpt", you will now be prompted to enter a source. Proceed in the same way as point 4. Mind that there is a special (field) relation between the item types "excerpt" and "source". If the source of an excerpt item is identical with the title of a source item, the content of the source item will display in the source of the excerpt item. This allows you to manage your sources dynamically.
6. You can enter multiple keywords by separating them through commas.
7. This is it, your first item has been created!

Display your first item

1. In order to display your first item, simply press "d" followed by the item's ID "1" in the main menu.
2. If your BIXTEP file contains more than one item, you can display the next item by pressing "n" and the previous item by pressing "p". This also works for the edit page.

Scrolling through lists and items
The length of an item or a list may exceed the number of displayed lines. You can scroll using "+" (next page" and "-" (previous page).

Edit the displayed item

1. In the display page, press "e" to edit the displayed item.
2. Now you can choose which field you want to edit by pressing the corresponding numbers. The content of the chosen field will show up in your default editor. If you don't want to loose your changes, save the file before you exit your editor.
3. When you finish editing the text in your default editor, BIXTEP returns to the edit page. ItemAn item consists of one or more fields which can be edited by the user. An item's content type is defined in the configuration file.'s are auto-saved.

List all items

1. In the main menu, press "l" to see a list of your items. Below the "#" you see the sequential numbers of your items. These numbers merely show the position of the items in your BIXTEP file and hence they may change when you delete an item. The items' unchangeable unique IDs are shown next to the sequential number. If you want to display, edit or delete an item, you have to use the ID.
2. You can go to a certain item by pressing "g" followed by the item's ID.

Search your items

1. Press "s" in the main menu.
2. You will then be prompted to enter the search term. Confirm the search by pressing enter.
3. If anything has been found, you'll see a list of matching items. Press "d" or "e" followed by the item ID to display or edit an item. Press "s" for a new search.