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Mr. Label _____________ Version 1.0 USER MANUAL Copyright 1986 by Thomas Gleason P.O. Box 18001 Mesa, Arizona 85212 ---------------------------------------------- USER SUPPORTED SOFTWARE ---------------------------------------------- You are encouraged to distribute free copies of this program. The Freeware concept makes a wide variety of quality software available to the public at a fraction of retail prices. Your support of program authors is necessary if this popular approach to software marketing is to continue. Satisfied users of Mr. Label contributing $20 to the author will receive a bound manual, program disk, notice of updates, and help with formats. Program disks can be obtained from user clubs or by sending $6 to the author. TABLE OF CONTENTS ----------------- Introduction ......................... 1 Getting Started ...................... 2 Typing Text/Making Corrections ....... 3 Menu Choices ......................... 3 Settings Defined ..................... 4 Changing Settings .................... 5 Fixed Lines - Using Start & Stop ..... 6 Printer Commands ..................... 7 F1: Sending a Printer Command ........ 8 CPI - Characters Per Inch ............ 8 Common Epson Commands ................ 9 Command Error Messages ............... 9 F8: Clear/Reset ...................... 10 F4: Get Disk Format .................. 10 F3: Creating a Printer Format ........ 11 The 'R' Command ...................... 12 F5: Edit a Format .................... 13 F6: Import Data File ................. 13 Creating Reports ..................... 15 Page 1. INTRODUCTION Mr. Label creates everything from simple reports to custom labels and prints on any type of single sheet or continuous form. Mr. Label is versatile. Use your printer like a typewriter to create one-time labels or retrieve and print information from virtually any database that stores data in text files. This includes: dBase III+, PC-File and many others. Mr. Label offers professional features which are especially useful to secretaries, sales people, non-profit groups and companies doing bulk mailings. The easy to understand manual shows practical applications that everyone will find useful. Mr. Label quickly does tasks that would normally require the complex programming language of an expensive database. No programming knowledge is needed. Here are some things you can accomplish: * Print selective record information from most major databases. * Create professional mass mailing applications: Channel database records into printing formats that you design. Print promotional messages on mailers as they're addressed. * Design reports with up to 12 columns of data. * Address envelopes; individually or continuous feed. Print the return address and destination address in one operation. * Print in any type font supported by your equipment. Do underlining and variable line spacing. * Avoid typing repetitive lines - remembers fixed text. * Center text automatically. * Make multiple copies. * Print letterheads, price tags, ID badges, file folder labels, name tags, inventory slips. * Design mailing labels - any size; position text however you want and even vary type fonts between lines. * Design printing formats and save them to disk. Mr. Label has many business and home uses - and it's easy to learn. Combine Mr. Label's capabilities with the speed and power of your printer for fast, attractive results. Copyright 1986, Thomas Gleason Page 2. GETTING STARTED Mr. Label requires an IBM-PC or compatible, one disk drive and 64K of memory. For the sake of safety, make a copy of your program disk and put it in a secure place. To run the program put your DOS disk in drive 'A' and turn on your computer. Take your DOS disk out and replace it with the Mr. Label disk. From the A> prompt, type: LABEL and press the Enter key. The TEXT screen will appear. Turn your printer on and make sure it has paper. If you attempt to print with the printer off you'll get an error message stating: Printer Error - Abort, Retry, Ignore - Turn the printer on and type an R. THE TEXT SCREEN The items above the top dashed line are your choices at this screen. Press one of the following: ENTER: Starts asking for information to place on each line. The label is formatted according to the settings that are presently displayed. F1: Displays a MENU of options you can use to send printer commands, create formats etc. F2: Displays the SETTINGS window. From here you can change the settings displayed on the text screen. CTRL-Q Quits the program. Hold down the CTRL key and then press Q. ENTER: TYPING TEXT/MAKING CORRECTIONS: Using the default settings, press the ENTER key and then type an address to fill out the four lines. Type one line that exceeds 32 characters. Make sure your printer is on and has paper in it. When the fourth line is finished the lower screen will clear and your text will reappear at the top. Notice how the excess characters have been truncated to fit the form length. Mr. Label prints exactly what appears in the upper screen. "Is Text Correct?" will now prompt you. If you press 'Y' or Enter, the label will print as many times as you have requested copies. If you enter 'N' it will ask : Change which Line?. Enter the line number and type the corrected line of text. The process is repeated until you approve the label. Mr. Label considers leading and trailing spaces to be part of your text. So to get a slanted label such as: The President 16 Pennsylvania Ave. Washington, D.C 10045 Just pad the start of each line with spaces. There's a much easier way to do this (by formatting the printer) but we'll get to that later. Page 3. THE EQUAL SIGN (=) and QUIT: After printing your text the program waits for you to press Enter again. If the text on a line is the same as the previous label, you don't have to retype it. Just enter an EQUALS SIGN '=' at the line number and press Enter. The old line will be inserted in the label. Pressing only ENTER at any line will make it blank. Typing the word QUIT will get you back to the start-up screen. ADDRESSING ENVELOPES: To address continuous feed envelopes or forms, you need to adjust the SPACES setting so the print head is positioned at the proper line on the next envelope. If a form is 20 lines from top to bottom then the spacing would be: 20 - Lines Typed = Spaces. When addressing hand fed envelopes most printers will sound a paper out buzzer and go off line. The paper-out detector can be turned off by a switch on some printers or by sending a direct printer command from a program. See 'Sending Printer Commands'. As a last resort you can put a piece of tape over the sensor switch (usually located under the platten roller). The address on a business envelope starts at about column 40. Set the MARGIN to 40 and begin typing. F1: MENU Pressing F1 will will offer some options. These will be explained in greater detail later. F1: SEND PRINTER CODE: Sending printer codes will change how the printer outputs text. All text will be affected. F2: DIRECTORY: Displays the files of any disk placed in the active drive. Format files created with Mr. Label end with an 'LBL'. F3: CREATE DISK FORMAT: Allows the text on each line of a label to be positioned anywhere on a form and printed in any type style. Formats can be saved to disk. Formatting allows you to create an original printing format which can be recalled for use at a later date. F4: GET SAVED FORMAT: Retrieve a saved printer format from disk. F5: EDIT FORMAT CODES: Previously saved printer formats or newly created ones can be corrected or changed and then resaved. F6: IMPORT DATA FILE: Text files can be read from any database and printed into whatever format you desire. F8: CLEAR/RESET: Resets the printer to power-up state and clears printing formats. Page 4. F2: THE SETTINGS Pressing F2: Change Settings from the main screen displays a variety of label settings in a window. Let's explain what all the words and numbers mean. LINES: This is the number of LINES of printed text that you want on each label. If the number of LINES exceeds 5 the bottom half of the screen will scroll upward when typing your text. Mr. Label uses 'windows' to display text and corrections. After each line of text is printed the paper is advanced 1/6 inch. REMEMBER to CHANGE the VALUES for START and STOP WHEN CHANGING the LINES SETTING. START: The lines between START and STOP are called 'VARYING LINES' /STOP: because they vary with every label. The lines below Start and above Stop are FIXED. The text on those lines will repeat for every label. Before changing the Start/Stop settings make sure the text you want is on the Fixed lines. Start and Stop lines must hold to some rules. 1. START can't be larger than STOP 2. LINES must be larger than START or STOP Breaking the rules causes a 'START/STOP ERROR' message. The Lines setting may have to be changed prior to changing Stop. SPACES: The number of blank lines between successive labels. The paper is advanced by the number of Spaces after the last line of your label is printed. Since the standard mailing label has six lines, the default settings are 4 text LINES and 2 SPACES = 6. The combination of Lines and Spaces varies with label size and the number of text Lines you are printing. The amount of each space(Linefeed) can be changed from 1/6 inch by sending a command to your printer. You might do this if you were printing in a non-standard type font. MARGIN: The left MARGIN setting at which to begin printing. When using continuous (tractor feed) labels, this setting will usually be set at 0. Be aware that, due to the way they fit between the tractors, continuous labels often start printing in column 3. Its best to set the margin to an even number. The MARGIN setting causes the printhead to space over the set number of columns before printing. If the sum of Margin and the number of characters to be printed exceeds 80 then your text will cause the printer to do a line feed (ie. skip to the next line). The Margin setting goes up to 99 because in some print modes (condensed) you can print over 80 characters on a line. Some people may need this flexibility but for some it can be a source of trouble so be watchful of your settings. Page 5. COPIES: The number of identical COPIES of a particular label. If the Pause setting is 'Y' the printer will wait before repeating. LENGTH: The LENGTH of the label. Always set the Length to the size of your form. The default setting is set for the standard mailing label which holds 32 characters of text. The number 32 actually stands for 3.2 inches. The number of characters that will fit on each line depends on the type style used. If you type too many characters on a line, Mr. Label truncates the text to fit the length of the form. When you are using a non-standard type font, Mr. Label will make an adjustment based upon the Length setting and the CPI (Characters Per Inch) of the font to allow more or less characters on the line. Remember, that the Length represents inches. The standard print mode is 10 Characters Per Inch (CPI). Therefore, a 4 inch label will fit 4 x 10 CPI = 40 characters per line. As you will learn later, some type fonts print 5 to 20 CPI. With these fonts you get more or less letters on the label. In the Enlarged mode you get: 4 x 5 CPI = 20 characters per 4" label line. In condensed it is 4 x 18 CPI = 72. Mr. Label will perform all the print mode adjustments if you give him the proper Length (inches x 10) and the CPI for the type font you are using. Entering the CPI is discussed later. C: Centering option. Centers text between the left MARGIN and the LENGTH of the label you select. If the Margin is set at 10 and Length is at 50 then the text will be centered at column 35 (50 div 2 = 25... 25 + 10 = 35). Centering is not active in Format Mode or when importing a database file. P: Pause option. When on(Y), the printer pauses before printing the next identical label. Press ENTER to continue printing or press 'S' to stop making copies. The Pause feature gives you time to position hand fed forms. The bottom dashed line represents an inch ruler. A white marker below the line represents the Length of your form in inches. This marker points at the right edge of your form. HOW TO CHANGE SETTINGS From the main screen press F2. Move the bar up or down using the arrow keys on the right side of your keyboard. Toggle the Pause and Centering settings to 'Y' and 'No' by pressing any key. The numeric settings are changed by typing a value and pressing Enter. Each of the settings has a range of values. Exceed the value and you get a 'RANGE ERROR' message. Page 6. A 'START/STOP ERROR' message appears if the rules described in the previous section are violated. If you change the setting for LINES remember to change START and Stop to the needed values. You can only type text between the varying lines. SETTING RANGES ----------------- Lines 1..12 Start 1..STOP Stop 1..LINES Spaces 1..99 Margin 0..99 Copies 1..99 Length 1..78 Center Y/NO (On/Off) Pause Y/No (On/Off) If you realize that a setting is wrong while typing in text don't worry. Type QUIT or when the program displays your text at the top of the screen and asks " Is text correct? " press ESC to get back to the Start screen. Change the setting. Then press '=' for each line you had typed and your text will reappear. USING FIXED LINES Imagine that you are a real estate agent and have sold a house at 1317 Mercedes Avenue. You want to send 100 of the neighbors a letter to inform them of your success and hopefully attract more business. The format of your 3 1/2 inch by 15/16 mailing label would be: Homeowner (various addresses) Phoenix, AZ 85022 Since the first and third lines will remain the same, wouldn't it be nice if you could avoid typing them? Let's create Fixed Lines. 1. Enter proper settings: Lines = 3, Length = 32, Spaces = 3. 2. Type your first label to a neighbor. This puts the fixed text on the appropriate lines. 3. Enter the START and STOP values. Start = 2, Stop = 2. 4. When you start typing the only line requested will be line 2. Lines one and three will repeat on each label. If you want your labels to be Centered just toggle that setting to 'Y'. The text will be centered between the left margin '0' and the length '32'... a center point of 16. Also, you could have selected any type font you thought appropriate. Page 7. ABOUT PRINTER COMMANDS This section is a bit technical but isn't difficult to learn. Just read through it. Later sections give some practical applications. DEFINITIONS: Code: A number sent to the printer. Command: A series of codes that change the way the printer prints text. Commands consist of one to three codes. Dot matrix printers have a variety of type fonts and settings. Some can be accessed by means of 'dip switches' but most require that you send the printer COMMANDS or CONTROL CODES. For example: A Line Feed advances the paper 1/6 of an inch. The paper advance can be changed to as little as 1/216th of an inch. Most printers support underlining, superscripts, elite, pica, enlarged, condensed, double strike and even foreign language characters. These Commands vary a bit between printers so most programs avoid their use due to compatibility problems. Mr. Label allows you to send Commands to access any type font offered by your printer. What does a Command look like? Here's the command sent in BASIC to cause underlining on an EPSON printer: (Most printers emulate the Epson). Print chr$(27);'-';Chr$(1): Mr. Label sends the command like this: 27,45,1,: The 45 is ASCII decimal for the hyphen symbol. The command will now stay on until turned off: 27,45,0,: ASCII stands for American Standard Code for Information Interchange and is the way the information industry assigns numbers for each character. REMEMBER: Most commands stay on until turned off! Mr. Label requires that codes be sent in decimal form. In BASIC some codes are represented as letters or numbers within quote marks. Example: This command turns on Double Strike mode. BASIC Print chr$(27);"G": Mr. Label 27,71,: Mr. Label needs the ASCII equivalent of "G" which is 71. The appendix of your printer manual should list the ASCII equivalents of the keyboard characters. Be careful about entering numbers enclosed in quotes. They are also keyboard characters and you must use their ASCII decimal equivelant. Example: ESC "4" turns on Epson's Italic print mode. ESC = 27 and the ASCII value for "4" is 52. So Mr. Label wants to see 27,52,: Page 8. REMEMBER: Any letter or number with quotes around it must be translated to decimal ASCII. Upper and Lower case letters have different ASCII code. Ex: A = 65; a =97. ESCAPE CODE: The number 27 is referred to as ESCAPE or ESC. This has nothing to do with the ESC key on your keyboard. The ESC or 27 primes the pump. It lets the printer know that what follows is not to be printed but is a printer command. Some printer commands are expressed as the word CONTROL followed by a letter - such as CONTROL-G. Whenever you see this type of expression here is the way of sending the correct code. The ASCII value of "G" is 71. Subtract 64 from the ASCII value of the letter and you have the actual code. So: Control-G: 71 - 64 = 7 7,: Control-D: 68 - 64 = 4 4,: F1: SENDING A PRINTER COMMAND Printer commands sent from F1 affect every line of the label. Commands sent from F3: Create Format act upon selective lines. From the main screen press F1. A menu window will appear. Press F1 again (Send Printer Code). F1 can't be accessed if a Format is active - more on this later. We are going to put the printer into enlarged mode. Type the following: 27,87,1,: That's 27 followed by a comma then a 87 and a 1 and lastly a colon. Each code is followed by a comma. Each series of codes which makes up a command must end with a colon. Press Enter. Make sure your printer is ON and has paper in it. If your command looks correct press 'Y' or Enter. Nothing seemed to happen but your printer will now print everything in ENLARGED type. If you get an error message at the bottom of the screen, change line 1 until you get a 'No Error' message. Press ESC to get back to the main screen. Create a label. Play around with the Length. Notice how wide the letters print. If you tried to change the Margin from 0 you noticed that things don't line up in the proper columns. That's because we haven't told Mr. Label the CPI (Characters per inch) for this font style. He's making his margin adjustments based on the standard 10 CPI when Enlarged mode tells the printer to print in 5 CPI. Type styles print in various sizes and some take more or less characters per inch to display the same text. CPI - CHARACTERS PER INCH To tell Mr. Label the correct CPI you precede the command with the CPI figure followed by a slash. So Enlarged would be sent as: ON 5/27,87,1,: Turns on Enlarged mode OFF 27,87,0,: Turns off Enlarged; resets CPI to 10 Page 9. Your printer manual should list the CPI for each type font. You can determine the CPI yourself by measuring the number of characters per inch with a ruler. If no CPI is sent it is assumed to be 10. If another CPI was previously sent it will remain at that value until another printer command is sent. If a printer command is sent without a CPI it is assummed to be 10. If you don't provide the correct CPI, your text may get lopped off or you could print over the edge of the label. You can see truncation occur in the Corrections mode when your text appears at the top of the screen. Here are some commands for EPSON and many other printers: ON OFF Type Style & CPI ------------------------------------------------------------- 18/15,: 18,: Condensed(Compressed) - 18 CPI usually 27,57,: 27,56,: Paper-out buzzer 27,71,: 27,72,: Double Strike 5/27,87,1,: 27,87,0,: Enlarged(Expanded) - 5 CPI 10/27,83,0,: 27,84,: Superscript - 10 CPI 12/27,77,: 27,80,: Elite - 12 CPI 27,69,: 27,70,: Emphasised(Correspondence mode) 10/27,52,: 27,53,: Italic - 10 CPI 27,45,1,: 27,45,0,: Underlining 27,64,: Resets printer to start up modes 10,: Line feed - printhead down one line 12,: Form Feed - printhead down one page Many commands can be combined. For example Double-Strike, Enlarged creates a large, bold and impressive font. 5/27,71,:27,87,1,: Mr. Label works with all printers but you'll have to check your printer manual to make sure the above commands are correct for your equipment. Notice that each individual code is followed by a comma and each command ends with a colon. There are no spaces between the codes. Don't forget to put a comma before the colon. There is a maximum of 50 code characters per printer command line. ERROR MESSAGES Mr. Label will examine every line of code you send and will tell you if you've made an error. An error is a mistake in entering the codes properly or supplying values that could not possibly be correct. If this happens some error messages will appear in red at the bottom of the screen and you'll be able to make corrections. Type 'N' in response to 'Are Codes Correct? ', enter a line number and make the changes. Error messages don't always pinpoint the problem but they always will flag the right line number. For example, if you forget to put the slash '/' in after the CPI or use a small 'r' (see Formatting the printer) you may get an ambiguous error message because that has caused other errors in that line of code. Page 10. REMEMBER: With Mr. Label you can't send the command wrong but you can send the wrong command. F8: CLEAR/RESET Pressing F8 at the menu sends a command to the printer which resets it to the power-up state. All the settings and the CPI are also reset. The Format mode is exited. Turning your printer off and on does not reset the CPI. The CPI is reset to 10 (or to a new CPI value) when sending any printer command or by pressing F8: Clear/Reset. FORMATTING THE PRINTER Formatting assigns printer commands to corresponding lines of text. These Format commands can be saved to disk for future use. Please note, the printer commands(format) for each line are saved - not the text. Formatting the printer lets you completely control the position of the printhead and the type font for each line. Thus every line can be in a different type style and/or position on the page. Centering does not work in Format Mode. You must specify the CPI for each line unless its intended to be 10 CPI(the default). Creating and Saving a Printer Format F4: GET DISK FORMAT Here are the steps to follow when retrieving a format file. 1. Put Fixed text(or blank lines) on the lines outside of the Start/Stop range of the Format. 2. Use F4 to load the disk format file. (You could eliminate Step 1 by loading the file, changing the Start/Stop settings, entering the fixed text/blank lines and then re-entering the original Start/Stop values.) 3. Change any other settings as required. Altering the format settings for LINES, START or STOP is guaranteed to cause problems because doing so changes the format. 4. Begin typing or Import a database file into the format. On your Mr. Label disk there is a file called LETTER.LBL which prints the return and destination address on continuous business envelopes in one pass and in different type styles. This format can be adapted to many uses. We'll use this complicated labeling format as an example. The format only requires the user to type the addressee information. The return address and a message line are fixed for each envelope. This sort of application is very effective in getting the recipient's attention and makes for an attractive and professional looking mailer. It also saves the sender a lot of work. Page 11. Change Lines and Stop to 11. On lines 1,2 and 3 type your return address. Press return for all the lines up to 9. This makes lines 4 to 9 blank. On Line 10 type: IMPORTANT. Press Enter for line 11. Press ESC at ' Is Text Correct? '. It's not necessary to print the text. We have now finished Step 1. From the Menu press F4: Get Disk Format. Enter the filename LETTER. ( Mr. Label saves and retreives all format files automatically with the .LBL suffix ). Upon loading the file, the Format settings appear as does a description of the format. Notice that Start is 6 and Stop is 9. Lines 6-9 are varying lines - all the rest are fixed. This was Step 2. Press '4' and go back to the main screen. You will notice a white 'P' on the screen. This means that a Printer format is now active. Also, the settings have changed to reflect the active format. At this point you could change the MARGIN, COPIES etc per Step 3. You can't send an F1 printer command when a Printer Format (P) is active. This prevents the format from being altered. Press Enter, type lines 6 - 9 and then print. The LETTER Format prints your return address in the upper left corner, spaces down and prints the destination address and finally prints our underlined message. F3: CREATE PRINTER FORMAT Steps to create and save a format: 1. Press F3: Create Format. Change the LINES, SPACES, START, STOP and LENGTH settings to the needed values. 2. Format the text by entering printer control codes. Save the format if you wish. 3. Exit to the text screen and type a sample label to test the format. If needed press F5: EDIT FORMAT to make changes. Let's recreate the LETTER format to show how it's done. From F3, press 1: Change Settings. Set LINES = 11. LENGTH = 40 because we have plenty of room to type on a large envelope. SPACES = 4 because we want some line feeds to push our envelope through the printer after its done being addressed. START = 6 and STOP = 9 because the destination address will go into the varying lines. MARGIN, COPIES and PAUSE are never part of a Format. Next, we format the printer by pressing a 2 to enter the codes. Keep in mind that when a format is active, text will be printed according to the printer commands for that line (and any prior commands that have not been turned off). Also, the commands for a line go to the printer just before the text. These are the commands that make up the Letter.lbl format. 1) 10/: The 10 is the CPI for the line - normal text. Lines 1 - 3 contain the return address and will print in normal mode. Page 12. 2 + 3) 0,: The CPI stays at 10 and nothing else changes either. The 0 is entered just by pressing ENTER at the line. 4 ) 10,:10,:10,:10,:10,:10,:10,:10,:10,: ... 9 Linefeeds After the address is printed in the upper left corner we need to space down (line feed) in order get the print head on the right line. Lines 4 and 5 are blank on my envelopes but if you wanted fixed text on line 4 you could have put all the linefeeds on line 5. In this case we aren't changing a type style but are moving the printhead to a new position in preparation for lines 6 - 9. A line can be without text but still have printer commands - like line 4. For example, line 4 could also have included a command to activate the subscript font. This command would then affect the next text line to print since the command stays on until turned off. 5) 0,: Line 5 has no printer commands and will contain a blank text line. --- The R Command --- 6) 42R5/27,87,1,: Here's something new. The R (that's upper case R) always precedes the CPI (5/ in this case). There are never any commas or colons before the slash. This R means "space over 42 to the Right before printing the address". The MARGIN setting moves everything over while the R moves lines selectively. The text will print 42 columns Right from the left Margin position. 27,87,1,: causes the person's name to print in Enlarged mode. The sum of Margin and R must always be an even number. If you are only sending an R or CPI command without anything else here are some rules. Remember that R and CPI are software commands not printer commands. Mr. Label uses these numbers to make various spacing adjustments. Printer commands stay on until turned off. 1. 35R/: If only sending an R follow it by a slash and then a colon. The R is only good for that line. It reverts to zero after printing 2. 5/: If only sending a CPI follow it by a colon. If no CPI is given for a line it is assumed to be 10. 3. 35R5/: If sending an R and a CPI this is the format. 4. The sum of MARGIN and the R should ALWAYS be an even number. Otherwise, if you are lining up different type fonts one above another they may not be perfectly aligned. This is caused by rounding when Mr. Label makes his margin adjustments. 7) 42R10/27,87,0,: We want lines 7, 8, 9 to print in normal mode starting in column 42. So, we'll turn off enlarged mode. It wasn't really necessary to include the 10 CPI after the R because if a CPI isn't included it's assumed to be 10. Page 13. 8 + 9) 42R/: Lines 8 and 9 print in column 42 in normal 10 CPI. 10) 5/10,:27,87,1,:27,45,1,: These codes cause text to be printed in Enlarged, Underlined mode starting in the leftmost column. The CPI is set to 5. Our message "IMPORTANT" goes on line 10. 11) 27,87,0,:27,45,0,: 27,87,0,: turns off enlarged. 27,45,0,: turns off underlining. The enlarged and underline commands have to be turned off because we want line 1 to start printing next time in normal mode. There is no text for this line. You usually must include an extra line like this to reset everything to normal mode. After entering the codes for line 11 you'll be asked if the codes are correct. Enter 'Y' or press Enter. If your code entries caused a syntax error, a red error message will appear. You should enter 'N' to " Are Codes Correct? " and make your corrections. Press '3' for SAVE NEW FORMAT. 'DESCRIBE' will appear on the top line. Enter information that will explain what goes on each line or what the format is for. You have 70 characters in which to fit your explanation. At the 'FILENAME' prompt, enter MYLABEL. The format will be saved. You may also precede the filename with the drive letter - example: B:mylabel. Press F2: DIRECTORY from the menu to see your file name in the directory. The format is now saved to disk and is active in the computer. At the main screen, you'll enter text on lines 6 to 9. The complete envelope format will print including fixed text. You could also import a database file into this format. The Format POSTCARD.LBL on your disk prints a return and destination address on Avery 3.5" x 6" continuous postcards (form #4167). F5: EDIT FORMAT If you don't like the looks of your format press F5: Edit Format to make any changes. All the settings and codes for the format will be displayed. You can retain the previous description by entering a "=". The format file can be resaved with the same or a new name. Edit mode is much like creating the format. A format must be active(P) to do an edit. F6: IMPORT DATA FILE Steps for importing a database file: 1. If not using a Format, enter any fixed lines and then select the appropriate settings. or If using a format, type any fixed lines and then use F3: Get Disk Format. Then make any desired setting changes. 2. Select F6 to import the data file. Page 14. Mr. Label reads database text files and assigns selective fields to lines of a label. The text files must be without delimeters such as quote marks. The records can be read into a Format or just printed according to whatever setting arrangement you prefer. Database records can not exceed 255 characters in length. Some databases do not normally store information in plain text files but may provide a utility to perform the conversion. Text files are the common denominator for transfering information between various applications so any good program will discuss this fact in its user manual. After pressing F6: IMPORT, enter the filename containing the database records. You can include the drive name - ex: b:filename.dat. The file will be retrieved and an error message will appear if the records exceed 255 characters or if there was an access problem. As we discussed, some databases and spreadsheets begin each file with a header record or store data in binary code. On the screen this will appear as a bunch of strange symbols or unintelligible information. You may be able to clean up the file with a text editor by removing the header 'garbage' from the front end. If you get a message stating the record exceeds 255 characters - and you know it is less - then you're probably dealing with binary data. It will have to be converted to a standard ASCII text file. The first record from the file will be displayed beneath a numbered grid which denotes the positions of each character in the record. Each field, or item of information in the record, extends from the first character of a field to one character before the start of the next field. ,...+....1....+....2....+....3....+....4....+....5....+....6....+... James Worth Mortician 26 S. Sundown Phoenix, AZ 85022 * In the above record, the 'Occupation' field contains Mortician and extends from columns 21 to 33. The 'Street Address' field is from columns 34 to 49. The last field ends in column 67 - one space before the asterisk. You'll be asked to enter the beginning and ending field positions for the lines between the START and STOP settings. The number of lines to be printed is determined by the LINES setting. If Start is larger than 1 and/or Stop is less than Lines, then your label will contain some fixed text. You have to be sure to plan the fixed text before retrieving your database file. If you wanted the occupation field to be on line 3 then the 'begin' position would be 21 and the 'end' would be 33. After the positions for the last line are entered, the complete label will be displayed including any fixed lines. You may now print the entire file, re-enter the field positions or quit to the menu. If the Pause setting is active the printer will wait before printing the next label. At this point, you can quit printing or choose to print the balance of the file without pausing. On your disk there is a database file called DATABASE.DTA which is the type of file a Realtor might keep on clients. You can import this file and experiment with it. Page 15. Field Positions for Database.dta ---------------------------------------- Name 1-30 City 106-135 Employer 31-55 Phone 136-143 Job Title 56-75 Price 144-151 Address 76-105 Need 152-191 CREATING REPORTS Mr. Label can display database records or typed text in a report format with up to 12 columns of data. Reports are printed by creating a format similar to a label format. A major difference is that no CPI codes are used. Mr. Label prints the data across a page by taking advantage of a printer's ability to generate very tiny linefeeds(LF). Successive lines of text are positioned in the proper column with the 'R' command(see page 12) and tiny linefeeds between lines give the illusion, as the printhead crosses the page, that everything is printing on the same line. Be sure to provide enough width between columns so the text doesn't overlap. The required width for a record field will be determined by the number of characters in the field intended for that column. The smallest LF on most printers is 1/180 inch but if a smaller value is available - use it. Our Blue Chip goes as low as 1/216 inch. If printing in condensed mode it is necessary to change the right margin to 132 columns from 80 because that's how many smaller characters will fit on a line. It's very possible that the commands used below to change the margin and LF settings will differ for non-Epson printers. The format REPORT.LBL on your disk prints 5 columns of data from DATABASE.DTA. Here are the format codes and settings for REPORT.LBL. LINES: 6 START: 1 STOP: 5 SPACES: 1 LENGTH: 40 1. 1R/15,:27,87,132,:27,51,1,: 1R/ - print in column 1 15,: - condensed 27,87,132,: - set right margin to 132 27,51,1,: - set Linefeed to 1/180 inch 2. 30R/: - print in column 30 3. 55R/: - column 55 4. 75R/: - column 75 5. 90R/: - column 90 Page 16. 6. 27,51,15,: - changes LF to 15/180 inch or 1/12 inch. LIne 6 contains no text. This command is sent to cause a normal 1/6 inch LF after the last field is printed on a report line. The LF is set to 1/12 inch( 1/6 div 2) because we will be getting two linefeeds. The blank line at 6 causes a LF as does the SPACE setting which is set to 1. Double spacing isn't wanted so the LF is cut in half. Note that a command wasn't sent on line 6 to cancel condensed mode(18,:) or to reset the margin to 80(27,81,80,:). You'll have to do an F8: RESET from the main menu when you are done printing. Use F4: Get Format to load Report.lbl and then type some column headings. Use F6: Import to load the file DATABASE.DTA. Enter the BEGIN and END positions for the following fields: NAME, JOB TITLE, PHONE, PRICE and NEED. Your report will look something like this: Name Job Title Phone Price Needs ----- ----------- -------- ------ ----------------- Richard Johnson Electrician 820-2618 85,000 3 bedroom ... **************** We're very interested in learning how people use Mr. Label at home or work. Also, the author will be happy to respond to written inquiries/comments about the program if you provide a stamped, return addressed envelope. A prize is offered if you happen to find the hidden, color graphics screen. The author has degrees in finance and computer science. He works as a computer programmer/analyst in Phoenix, Arizona. **************** The following files are on the program disk: Label.com, Readme, Manual.doc, Report.lbl, Letter.lbl, Basic.lbl, Postcard.lbl, Database.dta. Copyright 1986, Thomas Gleason ----------------end-of-author's-documentation--------------- Software Library Information: This disk copy provided as a service of The Public (Software) Library Disks in the library are updated monthly. For a copy of the latest monthly software library newsletter and a list of the 800+ disks in the library, call or write The Public (Software) Library P.O.Box 35705, Rm. F Houston, TX 77235-5705 (713) 721-6104 We are not the authors of this program, nor are we associated with the author in any way other than as a distributor of the program in accordance with the author's terms of distribution. Please direct shareware payments and specific questions about this program to the author of the program, whose name appears elsewhere in this documentation. If you have trouble getting in touch with the author, we will do whatever we can to help you with your questions.