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- rem Book index preparation programs, (C) Copyright Peter Norton 1983
- rem
- rem Peter Norton
- rem The Norton Utilities
- rem 2210 Wilshire Blvd, # 186
- rem Santa Monica, CA 90403
- rem
- rem This is a simple and straightforward set of programs and
- rem procedures intended to reduce some of the work of preparing book
- rem indices.
- rem
- pause press a key for more information . . .
- rem
- rem This system is not particularly fancy, and it may not have every
- rem feature that you might want, but it should fulfill most of your
- rem indexing needs.
- rem
- rem Before you invest any large effort in using this system,
- rem experiment with it to be sure that you can get satisfactory
- rem results from it.
- rem
- pause press a key for more information . . .
- rem
- rem This system works in six simple stages, which you use as needed:
- rem 1) START - this begins the process by setting up an empty data file
- rem 2) ENTER - this lets you type in index entries in any order
- rem 3) if you made errors in step 2, you correct them with your
- rem word-processor/editor
- rem 4) COMBINE - this sorts and merges your new index entries with
- rem any which you entered before
- rem 5) INDEX - this formats an index from your data
- rem 6) if there are any errors in the index you correct them
- rem
- pause press a key for more information . . .
- rem
- rem The normal way to use this system is to do step 1 (START) once,
- rem and then repeat steps 2 through 4 as many times as you wish,
- rem adding index entries in as many working sessions as you wish;
- rem finally, with steps 5 and 6 you complete the index.
- rem
- rem For all the steps but 3 and 6, there are 'batch' files which
- rem supervise the work of that step. To perform these steps, simply
- rem type in the step name, START, ENTER, COMBINE or INDEX. To make
- rem corrections, use your word-processor/editor program.
- rem
- pause press a key for more information . . .
- rem
- rem All of these operations are set up to work with the program
- rem diskette in drive A, and a working data diskette in drive B.
- rem
- rem Here is some more detail information about each step:
- rem
- rem 1) START -- this step copies an empty file to the file which is
- rem used to accumulate your index data, MERGED.DAT.
- rem
- pause press a key for more information . . .
- rem
- rem 2) ENTER -- this operates a special data-entry program which
- rem allows you to type in index entries in a convenient way.
- rem Note the message that appears at the beginning of this
- rem program, explaining the function keys f1, f2 and f10.
- rem To use this program, you simply type in index entries, and
- rem press return; page numbers are copied automatically. Page
- rem numbers can be automatically increased by pressing f2, and
- rem new page numbers can be specified by pressing f1. Page
- rem 'numbers' do not need to be all numeric-- you may use page
- rem numbers like "A-10", "5-13", or "xi".
- rem
- pause press a key for more information . . .
- rem
- rem You may type index entries in any order, since step 4,
- rem COMBINE, will sort the entries. You may find it convenient
- rem to abbreviate the index entries as you type them in, and
- rem then change them later, after the index has been built.
- rem
- rem For speed, convenience and safety, I recommend entering no
- rem more than one or two hundred entries at a time. You can
- rem then correct and COMBINE them, before returning to this
- rem stage to enter more.
- rem
- pause press a key for more information . . .
- rem
- rem 3) If you made any errors in step 2, you may correct them with
- rem your word-processor or editor program. The data you entered
- rem in step 2 will be found in a file named "ENTER.DAT". Be
- rem careful to maintain the format of the data (page number in
- rem the first six positions, "=" in the seventh, followed by the
- rem entry information).
- rem
- pause press a key for more information . . .
- rem
- rem 4) After you make any necessary corrections, this COMBINE stage
- rem will sort your new index data, and merge it together with
- rem data from other working sessions. The sorting process can
- rem become quite lengthy if there are more than one or two
- rem hundred new entries. (The results are left in a file named
- rem MERGED.DAT, if corrections are needed.)
- rem
- pause press a key for more information . . .
- rem
- rem 5) The INDEX stage will format your data into an index. The
- rem results are displayed on the screen, and also written to a
- rem file named "INDEX". In principle you would only use this
- rem step once, when you have entered all of your data, but you
- rem may want to try it after each ENTER and COMBINE operation,
- rem to check the results so far.
- rem
- pause press a key for more information . . .
- rem
- rem 6) Finally, you should check the formatted index for errors, and
- rem make any corrections needed. After that, you may print the
- rem finished index. If you entered page numbers in any unusual
- rem format, you should check that they have been sorted into the
- rem order you wish them to appear-- if not, you may correct them
- rem in the finished index. In most cases, both numeric page
- rem numbers and other forms of page number will sort into the
- rem right order; but, for example, roman numerals will not.
- rem