1.Download the software

From this first page of the website choose the Downloads & Trials button and navigate to the appropriate download. For the Candat application there are 4 possibilities, all with identical features. Choose the USA or Canadian version, based on your preference. Either version can access the other’s database, the ersion you choose installs with that country’s database activavted. The software allows you to change to the other database, possibly to source foods not found in your preferred database.

The other possibility depends on your computer. Choose the 32 bit version unless you have a 64 bit computer. Below, the 32 bit Canada trial is chosen.

Add the chosen version to your cart and checkout. Checkout will require your contact information and will create an account for you if you check the “create account” box..

If you choose to create an account you will always have access to your downloads without having to go through the purchase process (even if the purchase is for $0). There is no cost to create or maintain an account.

This is your confirmation of the order having been received. It has active links to download the software. You will also receive a confirmation email with these details.

If you have created an account and have signed in to the website with your account information you will be able to view and change the details of your account. Among other information you will see the list of your available downloads.

You can always install the most recent version of CANDAT over your existing version. None of your created data will be over-written, including configurations you may have set within your own CANDAT environment.

You should now use your usual download process to download the CANDAT executable and store it on an easily accessible area of your computer. “Desktop” is not a bad choice.

2.Install Candat

The process of installing CANDAT simply requires the execution of the downloaded software.

using an icon that looks like this if it is on your desktop

That should lead to the Welcome to Candat Setup Wizard, unless you are like me and have a security panel come up to confirm that you do indeed want to run this setup software.

By clicking on “Run” here we do get the Setup Wizard to start.

This is the beginning of the setup, click on “Next”

A more complete licence will be provided once you purchase Candat. Click on “I accept the agreement” and click on “Next”

These release notes give you more information on the environment in which Candat will work. Click on “Next” to continue…

This is where Candat will be installed. Click on “Next” to continue….

Each user on your computer can have his or her own area. This is where you would select the area. Report and data files will be stored in sub-directories of this area. Click on “Next” to continue…..

The folder of the start menu where Candat icons will be stored. No need to change this. Click on “Next” to continue….

… and a confirmation of your start-up choices. Click on “Next” to continue….

After the installation you will get a few useful notes. This information is also covered in the documentation should you need it. Click on “Next” to continue….

… and you are done! Congratulations. Click on “Finish” to end the installation.

This Icon should now appear on your desktop and is all you need to start using Candat on your computer.

3.Before Starting, Important Expectations:

• Candat does not work like windows programs because it is not a windows program. Candat is mostly for data entry and producing reports. It is much more efficient to use the keyboard for that kind of work, you do not have to constantly remove your hand from the keys to click on a new field.

• Candat does not use the mouse. It uses the tab and arrow keys as well as shortcuts using function keys (“F1”,“F5”, “F6”, Esc)

• Candat will work on all windows environments, including windows environments on Apple computers, something that most windows programs today cannot do

• This has allowed us to develop Candat to be the full featured program it is.

• You will find Candat very easy to use and consistent. Consider it a powerful “calculation engine” with outputs that can be read by windows programs such as Excel and Word and statistical packages such as SPSS and SAS.

4.Start the trial

When this first menu appears I check the following:

• Am I in the right database… the CDN10 (bottom right of the menu, under Databases) tells me I am in the Canadian nutrient file, most recent version

• note the function keys references… they are always useful in Candat, not too many to remember

• I still have 30 days left in my trial.

I am now ready to proceed.

5.Access the database through “Food Profile”

The first thing I do is access the database just to be sure the data works fine. For that I press the “F5” key to bring up a secondary menu, the Note Options. The nice thing about this “F5” key is that it is available to me wherever I happen to be in Candat. In this case I just want to access the Food Profile (see below) to check data.

Pressing “F5” gives me the Note Options below. To activate the Food Profile I can simply move the cursor down to that option or I can press “3” on the keyboard.

The prompts lead me to getting the desired information.

I happen to have multiple user food file in my environment. The food search feature of food profile can search foods from my specified user file too. In this case, I am choosing to include the “FOODHAB” file, Food Habits of Canadians. I could also choose <none> to just search the master and institute food file.

The following prompt appears at the bottom of the screen and is where the search becomes interesting. This window requires a food code which can be found by pressing “F6”.

There are many places in Candat that require a food code. One can enter a single word or part of a word, a combination of words separated by spaces or a combination of words separated by commas.

For instance, if I want to see all the foods that have avocado or guacamole, I would enter the following:

..and get a list of the found foods (I have already highlighted.my choice of the dip).

A small note about these “RESULTS BY KEYWORD”. All the foods presented have either avocado or guacamole in their descriptions. The letters “M” and “U” between the code and the descriptions indicate the source of the foods. “M” for Master food file, “U” for User food file. An “I” here would have indicated the Institute food file.

I simply press Esc. or Enter to bring that food code to the bottom of the page, Esc. again or Enter will bring up that food profile.

Food code…

…and profile

The resulting profile (below) contains all of the nutrients for that food, as well as the recommended daily intakes. This food has only one screen of nutrients but other foods will have multiple screens (pages) of nutrients. You can scroll down to see all the nutrients by pressing the “Page Down” key. If you press “Ctrl Page Down” you can scroll through a screen at a time.

Pressing “F6” in the Food Unit field shows the units that are available, we choose tablespoons in this case (see below).

… and choose 2 as the Amount. By pressing Enter twice we activate the “R” in the RECALC field and the profile recalculates to show the profile for that unit and amount (see below).

We only show part of the profile to demonstrate the choice of 2 tablespoons. Take note of the Weight and Ml reflecting a 2 tablespoon quantity.

Pressing Esc. repeatedly brings you back to where you were. A small aside, you can also press “F6” when prompted for Keywords. This will bring up your search history and you can choose one of those for your search.

If you have reached this point successfully you now know that you have installed Candat and have accessed one of its foods and manipulated the data and seen the results. You have also had some good experience with the “F5”, “F6”, Esc., and Enter keys. Now on to the real work. The next pages will introduce you to the modules and tasks of Candat, specifically, the task where you enter food recall information and get results.