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- File Express(tm) User's Guide
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- S O R T I N G T H E D A T A B A S E
- -----------------------------------------
-
- As you enter new information into the records of a file an index
- is built. This index is in the order that the records are typed
- in. If you then print a report or labels, they will be printed
- in the same order. But if you would like a report printed in al-
- phabetical or numerical order by a certain field or fields you
- must first SORT the index.
-
- The sorting capabilities in File Express are very powerful. You
- can sort on up to ten fields deep, with each one being sorted
- into ascending or descending order independent of each other. In
- addition, you may choose a subset of a field to sort on. For
- example, you may choose the last two characters of a date field
- or the middle five digits of a serial number. Selection of fields
- to sort on is very easy, as is the selection of the length, type,
- and location of the sort for each field.
-
- To sort the Index of a file, press <4> while viewing the Main Menu.
- When the sort program has been loaded, a list of fields for the
- current file will appear. If the record has more than 20 fields,
- you may use <PgUp> and <PgDn> to view both pages.
-
- The first prompt is:
-
- "First Field number to Sort on or <End>"
-
- Begin by pressing the number of the field upon which you would
- like the primary sort to be done. After doing so, the words
- "First Sort Field" will appear next to the field name you chose.
- The prompt at the bottom will now change to:
-
- "Length of -field- to sort on? (1 to max)...
- <Enter> for entire field"
-
- You must now decide how many characters worth of that field you
- would like to sort on. If you want the whole field, just press
- <Enter>. Most of the time though, a field can be alphabetized by
- the first five or six characters. (If the field is numeric, it
- is suggested that you sort the entire field).
-
- To sort on just part of the field, enter a number from 1 to the
- length of the field.
-
- If you enter a length that is shorter than the length of the field
- you may choose where within the field you would like that group to
- be taken. (For example, you may have entered '2' as a length
- response for an eight character date field and would like to sort
- on just the last two digits corresponding to the year.) Under
- the field name list will appear a string of "X"'s as long as the
- field you are working with. Starting from the left edge of this
- row, and continuing for as long as you chose, the X's will be
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- reverse imaged. This is your sort group. The prompt will be:
-
- XXxxxxxx
- "Use <Cursor Lt> and <Cursor Rt> to position sort grouping"
- then <Enter>
-
- (The capital X's will appear reverse imaged on the screen)
-
- To move the sort grouping to any position within the field, use
- the Cursor Right and Cursor Left keys. The reversed X's group
- will move right or left accordingly. When the group is at the
- desired location, press <Enter>.
-
- After doing so, the words "Characters x thru y" will appear next
- to the field name. (The x and y will be the starting and ending
- character positions within the field).
-
- You will now be asked:
-
- "Second field to sort on or <End>"
-
- You may now continue in the same fashion as you did for the first
- sort field, defining up to 10 if you wish. If you only want to
- sort on the first field, press <End>.
-
- File Express will now sort the index of your database to the
- specifications you have just supplied. The sort is done entirely
- in memory and thus is quite fast. If you have more records than
- can be sorted at one time in memory, File Express will pull in
- only as many as will fit, sort them, and then put them into a
- temporary file on a disk. It will then pull in the next group,
- sort them and then merge them in with the first group. This will
- go on until the entire index is in sorted order. In this manner,
- File Express uses disk space as virtual memory while doing the
- sort. This only happens if the entire sort can't be done in
- memory at one time. For databases with fewer than about 3000
- records, the sort can usually be done without this extended memory
- technique.
-
- After pressing <End>, File Express will check to see if the sort
- will need any overflow space. If disk space is required, then you
- will be prompted to:
-
- "Enter drive for sort workspace"
-
- Enter the letter of a drive with some extra space to spare.
-
- On single drive systems this must be the Data Disk, as File
- Express must have access to the Database at all times. On two
- drive setups, you may remove the Program Disk and insert a blank
- diskette to act as the overflow if you wish. File Express will
- erase all temporary work files when it is finished and will prompt
- you to insert the Program Disk again when it is finished.
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- If you have a hard disk or a RAM drive, you should choose one of
- these for the overflow, as the sort will proceed faster due to the
- quicker disk access time.
-
- After entering the workspace drive, or if File Express decides
- that it doesn't need it, the sort keys will be pulled from the
- database and will be processed by your previous choices. The
- message:
-
- "Working with Records 1 thru X"
-
- will appear mid-screen. If your entire sort will fit into memory
- then the 'X' will be the total number of records in your database.
- If the sort will have to be done in stages then the 'X' will indi-
- cate the number of records that are currently being sorted in mem-
- ory at the current time. Above this message you will see:
-
- "Sorting Index into Ascending order"
-
- The word 'Ascending' may change to 'Descending' at times, depend-
- ing on the type of sort being done on the particular field at that
- time.
-
- After the sort is completed, File Express will rebuild a new index
- and put it on the data disk, replacing any old index that has an
- extension of ".INX". During this process the message:
-
- "Rebuilding new Index"
-
- will appear on the screen. After the rebuild process you will be
- returned to the section that invoked the sort.
-
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- SORTING INTO RECORD NUMBER ORDER
-
- If you would like to re-sort the index of a database back into
- record number order regardless of field contents, choose field
- number <0> when asked which field to sort on. After doing so,
- File Express will immediately start to rebuild a new index in
- ascending record number order.
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- ----------------------------
- P R I N T R E P O R T S
- ----------------------------
-
- File Express is capable of printing many different styles of
- reports. Information may be arranged into any format you desire.
- Subtotals and totals may be printed on any or all of the numeric
- fields of a report. Calculated Fields may be defined that print
- the result of mathematical operations between numeric fields or
- constant values. Constant text lines may be used throughout a
- report, even between field data within a line. You can even in-
- clude the corresponding record numbers with each record printed.
-
- Reports may be any width up to 220 columns, which is condensed
- print on 14 inch wide paper.
-
- To reach the Report section of File Express, press <5> while
- viewing the Main Menu. A brief message will appear:
-
- "Transferring to Report Section"
-
- When you reach the report section you will be viewing the REPORT
- MENU. This menu is split up into two sections. The upper section
- has to do with printing reports and the lower section contains
- options that will transfer you to the other modules of File
- Express.
-
-
- Report Menu
- ________________________________
- | |
- | 1 - Define REPORT FORMAT |
- | |
- | 2 - Go to REPORT FORMAT LIST |
- | |
- | 3 - Print REPORT AGAIN |
- | |
- |--------------------------------|
- | |
- | 4 - Print MAILING LABELS |
- | |
- | 5 - RE-SORT Index |
- | |
- | 6 - Return to MAIN MENU |
- | |
- | 7 - QUIT all Processing |
- | |
- |________________________________|
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- To print a report you may now choose one of the top two options.
- If you have used the Report feature of File Express before and
- have saved your previous report formats then choosing option <2>
- will display a list of these formats. You will be prompted to:
-
- "Type REPORT format to use or <ENTER> for new Layout"
-
- You may type in the name of any report on the list. After doing
- so File Express will take a look at the format and, if it is com-
- patible with the file you are working with, will display the lay-
- out on the screen and prompt:
-
- "Press <Enter> to use this Layout or <Esc> to go back"
-
- If you would like to use the displayed layout, press <Enter>.
- You will then be taken to the Record Choice Menu. (For instruc-
- tions on how to continue from here please turn ahead to the
- "Record Choice Menu" section.
-
- If you decide that the displayed report is not what you wanted,
- press <Esc> and you will be taken back to the Report Format List.
-
- From the Report Format List, if you decide not to use any of the
- displayed formats, press <Esc> to go back to the Report Menu or
- <Enter> to move on to the "Create New Report Format" section.
-
-
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- CREATING REPORT FORMAT
-
- After arriving here from either the Report Menu or from the
- Report Format List you will be shown a list of the current field
- names. If the record has two pages (over 20 fields) you may use
- <PgUp> and <PgDn> to flip between the pages. A command will be
- shown at the bottom of the screen:
-
- "First field number to print on Line 1, Column 1
- "<T>-text <^S>-spaces <^C>-calc <End>-end <^F>-end/formfeed"
-
- You may now begin to specify the printing format of your report.
-
-
-
- COLUMNAR REPORTS
-
-
- A columnar report is one in which all desired fields from each
- record are printed on only one line, with each successive record
- being printed directly below the preceding one. Thus, all cor-
- responding fields from all the records form columns going down
- the page.
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- Example:
-
- Part Name Part Number Quantity Last Reorder
- _________ ___________ ________ ____________
-
- Wheels 1324-A-7430 16 10-03-83
- Tires 1344-R-2004 10 08-23-83
- Jacks 2245-W-2340 20 05-30-82
- Manuals 1109-E-8765 200 01-10-81
-
-
-
- Start by entering the field number of the first field you want
- printed on the report. Each time you enter a field number the
- column indicator on the command line will increase by the length
- of the chosen field, plus one. Also, next to each field in the
- list that is selected, the line and column position that that
- field will be printed on will appear. Although you may use a
- field up to 50 times in a report format, only the first three
- positions will be displayed next to the field name.
-
- You may continue to enter field numbers until the column indicator
- reaches a maximum value of 220. As the indicator approaches 220,
- File Express will not allow you to add a field whose length would
- cause the column number to exceed the maximum amount. If you have
- a printer that is not capable of printing 220 columns, don't allow
- the column indicator to exceed your printers maximum width capa-
- bility. If any report line goes over 80 columns, the report will
- be printed in condensed mode, (If your printer is capable of this
- and if you have set the appropriate printer codes in the PRINTER.SET
- file). When you are finished entering field numbers, press <End>.
- This tells File Express that you are finished inputting the fields
- for the layout. If you want to have a form-feed done after each
- record is printed, for instance if you were printing invoices and
- only wanted one name per invoice form per page then press <^F>
- (Control-F) instead of <End> when you are finished with the report
- specification.
-
- On columnar reports, File Express will print column titles at the
- top of each page with a dotted line under each title, indicating
- the column length. If a field is shorter than 12 characters long.
- the column title will only be as long as the field length. For
- example, if you have a field named "Part Number" and the length of
- this field is 4, then when the report is printed out the field
- title will be truncated to "Part".
-
-
-
- MULTI-LINE REPORTS
-
- A multi-line report is one in which the information from each
- record is presented on more than one line. Each line may contain
- one or more fields from each record.
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- Example:
-
- Johnson Electronics
- P.O. Box 1190
- Seattle, WA. 98104
-
- Computer Supply
- 123 N.E. 245th
- Martinville, SD. 60124
-
- Micro Supply
- 23 Gilman Blvd
- Waterton, OR. 97676
-
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- To specify a multi-line report format, begin by entering the field
- numbers that you would like to be printed on the first line. When
- you would like to move to the next line, simply press <Enter> by
- itself. The line indicator at the bottom will increase by one and
- the column indicator will re-set to zero. You may then enter the
- field or fields that you would like on that line. You may enter
- up to 55 lines per record.
-
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- RECORD NUMBERS
-
- At the top of the list of field names is a Record Number field
- numbered "0". If you would like to include in your report a
- list of the numbers the records are stored in, choose <0> as the
- desired field at any time in the report layout process. The
- field takes 5 columns.
-
-
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- AGE OF RECORDS
-
- If your record includes the field "DATE-" or "ORIGIN DATE-" you
- may specify an "AGE" field to be printed on your report. This
- field will contain the age of the record in days. This is
- computed by figuring the number of days elapsed since the record
- was created. (Be sure the current system date is set correctly
- before printing the report.) This field takes 4 column positions.
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- CALCULATED FIELDS
-
- New report fields may be defined to be the result of calculations
- between existing numeric fields or between existing fields and
- constant values. To define a "Calculated Field", press <Ctrl-C>
- instead of a field number. You will then be asked to give the:
-
- Name for Calculated Field
-
- You may now type in up to 12 characters for the field name. After
- naming the field you will be asked:
-
- Type of numeric field (#,$)
-
- You must now decide whether you want a "Decimal" field or a "Dollar"
- format field. After making your selection you will be asked to
- specify the length of the field. A calculated field may be up to
- 14 digits long. Dollar format fields must also be at least 4 digits
- long. You will now be led through the mathematical definition of the
- field. (To read a complete description of the Calculation setup
- process please read the "CALCULATED FIELDS" portion of the DEFINING
- NEW DATABASE section). While you are defining the field the growing
- equation will be displayed near the bottom of the screen so you can
- keep track of your progress. Whenever you are asked to enter the
- number of the next field for the calculation, you may use <PgUp> and
- <PgDn> to view both pages of a two page record and also to view any
- Calculated fields that you have just defined (on a third page). The
- newly defined calc fields will be numbered starting at 131, and can
- be used in succeeding calc fields by using the number shown.
-
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- TEXT LINES WITHIN REPORT
-
- Constant text lines may be entered anywhere within a report format,
- either on a line by itself or between field contents within a line.
- You may use text lines to label field contents if you like.
-
- Name:
- Address:
- Phone:
- Comments:
-
- These text lines will be printed the same for each record. When
- printing multi-line reports, it is often a good idea to make the
- last line of each record format a line of dashes, asterisks or
- periods.
-
- -------------------------------------------------------------
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- This will make it easy to see where one record ends and the next
- begins.
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- To enter text characters or lines, press <^T> instead of typing
- in a field number. The command line at the bottom will read:
-
- "Enter text for Line x Column y"
-
- Type in the desired characters and press <Enter>. The column
- indicator will then increase by the length of your text line plus
- one additional space. You may enter text up to 80 characters each
- time you press <^T>. Fifty text entries are permitted within a
- report format.
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- BLANK SPACES
-
- File Express normally prints consecutive fields with zero or one
- blank space between each one. The space between any two fields may
- be increased if you wish.
-
- To tell File Express that you would like to print a blank field,
- press <^S>. The command line will read:
-
- "Length of empty field"
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- You may enter any number up to 60.
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- FINISHING UP THE REPORT FORMAT
-
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- When you have finished arranging your Report Format, press <End>.
- (or <ctrl-F> if you want a form-feed done after each record printed)
- You will then be asked:
-
- "Title for Printed Report?"
-
- Enter the report heading that you would like to have printed at
- the top of each page. You may enter up to two title lines, the
- second prompt line appearing after you enter the first. If you
- don't want to use the second line, just press <Enter> without
- typing in anything else. If you leave both title lines blank
- at this time, you will be re-prompted for the report title again
- before the report is printed and each time you use this format
- in the future (that is, if you choose to save the format to the
- disk). This feature allows you to re-use the format over and
- over and still provide a different title for each report. If
- you leave the tltle line blank after being re-prompted for a title,
- then the title, date, and page indicator will be suppressed at the
- top of each page when the report is printed.
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- COLUMN AND ROW HEADINGS
-
- If you have specified your report format to be columnar, then the
- column headings will automatically be printed across the top of
- each page directly beneath the title line. The column headings
- are the field names from each field chosen.
-
- If your report format has several lines for each record (multi-
- line) you may choose whether or not you would like to print the
- field names at the top of each page, only on the first page, or
- on none of the pages. A ten-line-per-record report will take ten
- lines to print the field names. Usually this is redundant infor-
- mation if printed on each page and takes a lot of room. If you
- have not used constant text lines within each record, to identify
- the information in the records, you may want to just print the
- field headings on the first page only so as to identify the format
- of the report to the reader. You may choose any of these options
- from the command line:
-
- Print Field Headings on <A>ll pages, <F>irst Page only, or <N>one?
-
-
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- TOTALS AND SUBTOTALS AND COUNTS
-
- When you are printing a report you may choose to have Subtotals
- and/or Totals printed on the Numeric and Calculated fields. You
- may also have a Count and/or Total Count done on the string fields.
-
- Subtotals and Counts can be generated for chosen columns each time
- a specified field content changes. You may also choose to have sub-
- totals printed each time part of a field changes, such as the
- center two digits of a DATE field for instance.
-
- Subtotals, Totals and Counts are printed differently depending on the
- format of your report. On a columnar report, the subtotals and
- totals are printed directly under the corresponding numeric col-
- umns. On a multi-line report the subtotals and totals are printed
- in a multi-line format, labeled with the field names.
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- Example of a Columnar Report with Subtotals, Totals and Counts:
-
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- Billing Name Customer Name Amount Due
- --------------------- ------------------------- ----------
- Doe, John Doe, Jane 34.89
- Doe, John Doe, Jill 24.78
- Doe, John Doe, John 10.00
- ------------------------- ----------
- 3 69.67
-
- Jones, Fred Jones,Tommy 47.50
-
- Larson, Martha Larson, Linda 246.05
- Larson, Martha Larson, Martha 29.45
- ------------------------- ----------
- 2 275.50
-
- Nelson, Willy Nelson, Willy 945.70
-
- Thompson, Wayne Smith, Fred 34.89
- Thompson, Wayne Thompson, Wayne 467.34
- Thompson, Wayne Thompson, Peggy 34.23
- Thompson, Wayne Thompson, Dave 3.89
- ------------------------- ----------
- 4 540.35
-
- ========================= ==========
- 11 1878.72
- ========================= ==========
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- Example of a Multi-Line report with Subtotals and Totals:
-
- Billing Name : Doe, John Customer Name: Doe, Jane
-
- Amount Due : 34.89
- Sales Tax : 3.49
- Balance Due : 38.38
- ........................................................
- Billing Name : Doe, John Customer Name: Doe, John
-
- Amount Due : 10.00
- Sales Tax : 1.00
- Balance Due : 11.00
- ........................................................
- --------------------------------------------------------------
- Subtotal: Amount Due : $ 44.89
- Sales Tax : $ 4.49
- Balance Due : $ 49.38
- --------------------------------------------------------------
-
- Billing Name : Jones, Fred Customer Name: Jones, Tommy
-
- Amount Due : 47.50
- Sales Tax : 4.75
- Balance Due : 52.25
- .........................................................
-
- Billing Name : Larson, Martha Customer Name: Larson, Linda
-
- Amount Due : 246.05
- Sales Tax : 24.61
- Balance Due : 270.66
- .........................................................
- Billing Name : Larson, Martha Customer Name: Larson, Martha
-
- Amount Due : 29.45
- Sales Tax : 2.95
- Balance Due : 32.40
- .........................................................
- --------------------------------------------------------------
- Subtotal: Amount Due : $ 275.50
- Sales Tax : $ 27.56
- Balance Due : $ 303.06
- --------------------------------------------------------------
- ==============================================================
- Total: Amount Due : $ 367.89
- Sales Tax : $ 36.80
- Balance Due : $ 404.69
- ==============================================================
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- When setting up a report that contains numeric fields you will be
- asked:
-
- Would you like to print numeric <S>ubtotals, <T>otals, <B>oth or <N>one?
-
-
- Press <S> to print only Subtotals and Counts.
- Press <T> to print only Totals and Counts.
- Press <B> to print both Subtotals, Counts and Totals.
- Press <N> if you don't want any totals at all.
-
- You may also specify that a form feed be done after any subtotal
- is printed. To do this, press <Ctrl-S> instead of <S> or <Ctrl-B>
- instead of <B> in answer to the above question.
-
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- If you press <S>, <T>, or <B> you will be asked:
-
- <A>ll fields or <S>ome)?
-
- If you want the totals, subtotals or counts generated on every
- field that will be printed in the report, press <A>.
-
- If you only want totals, subtotals, or counts done on selected
- fields, press <S>. You will then be asked:
-
- "Enter Field Numbers you want totaled (Press <End> when Finished)"
-
- Proceed by typing in the field number of all the numeric fields
- that you want included in the totaling. As you enter each field
- number it will appear near the bottom of the screen.
-
- If you type in a field number that was not included in the report
- format you will see:
-
- "Field x is not included in the report"
-
- When you have completed the entering of the fields to be totaled
- or subtotaled, press <End>.
-
-
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- DETERMINING SUBTOTAL GENERATION POINTS
-
- If you are printing subtotals, File Express will want you to:
-
- "Enter Field number which will determine the printing
- of subtotals."
-
- You must now decide which field will be used to generate
- the subtotals. This may be a Name, ID number, Date, Year, City,
- State, or what have you. It is generally the same field that was
- used to sort the index the last time.
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- After choosing the field you will be asked for:
-
- "Length of <fieldname> to compare (1 to max)...<Enter> for entire field"
-
- If you want to use the entire field as the basis for comparison
- with previous records to generate subtotal points, just press
- <Enter> to indicate the full length of the field. If, however,
- you want to only compare part of a field, such as the day or
- year portion of a DATE field, enter the number of character
- positions that you would like to compare.
-
- After doing so a row of X's will appear with a length equal
- to the length of the field chosen. You may now use the
- left and right cursor keys to position the highlighted
- group of X's anywhere within the field that you wish.
-
- XXxxxxxx
- "Use <Cursor Lt> and <Cursor Rt> to position sort grouping"
- then <Enter>
-
- (The capital X's will appear reverse imaged on the screen)
-
- When the group is at the desired location, press <Enter>.
-
-
- DUPLICATE GROUPING
-
- The next question to be asked will be:
-
- "Do you want Duplicate Grouping (Y/N)?"
-
- When printing a report with Subtotals or Counts, you can tell
- File Express to only print the first occurrence of the field
- that is used to generate the Subtotals or Counts. This way you
- can avoid redundant repetition of the same information.
-
- LAST NAME FIRST NAME AMOUNT
- ---------------------- --------------- ----------
- Carpenter Donald 124.98
- Barbara 23.80
- Kathy 309.00
- Mark 0.00
- Ted 93.74
- --------------- ----------
- 5 551.52
-
- Williams Alex 93.84
- Daniel 35.98
- Zach 298.67
- --------------- ----------
- 3 428.49
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- Answer the question with either a <Y> or <N>.
-
-
-
- SAVING THE REPORT FORMAT
-
- After you have specified the report format and how it will be
- printed, you are asked:
-
- "Would you like to save this Report Format (Y/N)?"
-
- If this is only a one-time report printout then press <N>.
-
- If you would like to be able to use your report layout again in
- the future, without having to define it all over again, press <Y>.
- You will then be asked for:
-
- "Name for Report Format _______"
-
- Enter the name, (up to eight characters), that you would like to
- remember the format by. File Express will then save the layout
- on the data disk with the extension of ".RPT". (Note: The way in
- which File Express saves the report format has been changed as
- of version 3.0. If you have any formats saved from prior
- versions you will have to re-enter them again as they are not
- compatible.
-
- From now on, when you choose the Report Format List option from
- the Report Menu, you will see a list of all previously saved re-
- port formats. You may choose any report format that will fit
- your current file structure. (If you are working with a file
- that contains 10 fields and choose a report format that was
- created for a 20 field file, File Express will tell you that the
- report is not compatible).
-
-
-
- RECORD CHOICE MENU
-
- After you have completed your specification of the report format,
- or have chosen a previously saved format from the Report Format
- list, you will be presented with the "Record Choice Menu":
-
- 1 - Use EVERY record in file
- 2 - Use SOME records in file
- 3 - ... Redo the Report Format
-
-
- USE EVERY RECORD
-
- By pressing <1> from the Record Choice Menu you are telling File
- Express that you would like to use every record within the current
- file when generating your specified report.
-
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- USE SOME RECORDS
-
- If you would like to be selective in your choice of which records
- to include on the report, then press <2>. The list of field names
- will be shown and you will be asked to indicate the kind of com-
- parison you would like to make:
-
- "<G>reater than <L>ess than <E>qual to <N>ot equal to"
-
- Press the beginning letter of the type of comparison you would
- like to make. You will then see:
-
- "Select FIELD NUMBER to pull Records by"
-
- You must now press the number of the field that you would like
- to apply your selected comparison to. You will then be asked:
-
- "Which <field name> would you like to choose records
- <comparison>?"
-
- You must now enter the name, value, etc., that you would like to
- make the comparison with.
-
-
- MIXED CASE COMPARISONS
-
- Normally File Express will ignore the case of the comparisons being
- done. For instance, searching for "Jones" will bring up "JONES"
- and "jones". If you would like File Express to pay attention to the
- case of the search information it looks at, then press <Ctrl-Enter>
- instead of just <Enter> at the end of typing in the comparison
- string.
-
-
- EMBEDDED TEXT COMPARISONS
-
- If you are doing an "<E>qual to" comparison or a "<N>ot equal to"
- comparison you may specify that the entire field be looked at.
- To do this, you add two periods (..), in front of the comparison
- string and two peroids after the string. Such as:
-
- ..Christmas..
-
- In this manner you could keep several category words in one field
- and still be able to print reports with records containing only
- a selected word in that field...or records that were <N>ot equal
- to a certain word in the field.
-
- After making your first comparison choice, the prompt line will
- change to:
-
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- <A> - "And" Comparison <O> - "Or" Comparison <End> - Finished
-
- With File Express you can do multiple comparisons when choosing
- which records to use. You may want to print all the records
- with the "LAST NAME" EQUAL to "Jones" AND the "CITY" EQUAL to
- "Seattle" OR "Portland". This is very easy to do! To make an
- AND or OR comparison, press either <A> or <O> from the above
- prompt. You will then again see on the command line:
- <G>reater than <L>ess than <E>qual to <N>ot equal to
-
- You may now make your next choice for field number and comparison
- value. Up to 10 comparisons can be made.
-
- When you have finished, press <End> to tell File Express that you
- are done and would like to print the report.
-
-
- VIEW REPORT ON SCREEN, PRINTER, or DISK
-
- After you've made your choices from the "Record Choice Menu", you
- will be asked:
-
- "Write to <S>creen, <P>rinter, or <D>isk ?"
-
- The report generated may be viewed on the screen, printed on the
- printer, or sent to a disk file which may then later be printed
- or loaded into a word processor and combined with other textual
- information.
-
-
- SCREEN
-
- If you would like to see how the report will look, without having
- to print out a hard copy on paper, press <S> to have the report
- printed on the screen. When a report is printed to the screen
- File Express will continually scroll the records up the screen
- with no page breaks. At the bottom of the screen will be:
-
- "Press <Spacebar> to start and stop display"
-
- To stop the scrolling display you may press the <Spacebar>.
- Pressing the <Spacebar> again will resume the scrolling report.
- You may view the entire report in this manner, or by pressing
- <Esc>, you may skip any remaining portion.
-
- Since most monitors are not capable of displaying 132 columns per
- line, any report that has a format over 80 characters wide will
- "wrap around" to the next line when viewed on the screen.
-
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- PRINTER
-
- If you choose to print your report out on the printer, press <P>.
- The screen will clear and you will be asked:
-
- "<C>ontinous forms or <P>ause after each page"
-
- Press <P> if you are using single sheet paper and must hand load
- each piece, one at a time.
-
- Press <C> if you are using continuous tractor feed paper.
-
- The final act before printing is to:
-
- "Press any key when Printer is ready"
-
- Set the printing head of your printer even with the top edge of
- the page. Turn the printer off-then back on again to be sure the
- top-of-form position is set and then press any key to begin print-
- ing.
-
- File Express will print the title of the report at the top of
- each page along with the current date and page number. If you
- are printing a columnar report, File Express will print the column
- headings next, before proceeding to print the record information.
-
-
- DISK FILE
-
- If you want to direct your report to a disk file, press <D>.
- You will then be asked:
-
- "Name for Output File ______________"
-
- You should now enter the file name, including drive specification
- and extension, into which the report will be saved. After doing
- so, File Express will generate the report and send it to the
- disk file.
-
-
-
- TOTALS OR SUBTOTALS ONLY
-
- After having indicated where you want the report to be printed,
- if you are printing a report that will have totals generated
- for one or more numeric fields, you will be asked to indicate
- whether you want to print:
-
- <E>ntire report, <S>ubtotals or <T>otals only?
-
- If you press <E>, File Express will proceed to print all the
- records that are to be included on the report along with any
- subtotals and totals that were requested.
-
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- If you press <S> then the subtotals for the specified fields
- will be accumulated for each group of like records and the
- subtotals will be generated each time the comparison field changes.
- The comparison field value will also be printed so you can see
- who or what the subtotals belong to.
-
- If you press <T>, File Express will pull all the numeric information
- from the records that were to be included on the report, but
- instead of printing the information to the screen or printer,
- File Express will just accumulate the grand totals and then print
- them out. In this manner, for example, you could see how
- much your accounts receivable were without having to print an
- entire report.
-
- After you have viewed your report on the screen or have printed
- it out on your printer you will be presented with several differ-
- ent directions in which to continue:
-
-
-
- ________________________________
- | |
- | 1 - Redefine REPORT FORMAT |
- | |
- | 2 - Go to REPORT FORMAT LIST |
- | |
- | 3 - Print LAST REPORT AGAIN |
- | |
- |--------------------------------|
- | |
- | 4 - Print MAILING LABELS |
- | |
- | 5 - RE-SORT Index |
- | |
- | 6 - Return to MAIN MENU |
- | |
- | 7 - QUIT all Processing |
- | |
- |________________________________|
-
- Selection _
-
- Press <1> if you decide that you need to redo your report format
- or if you want to create any additional layouts. You will be
- taken back to the beginning of the report format definition.
-
- Press <2> if you would like to go back to the list of previously
- defined and saved formats.
-
- Press <3> if you would like to print the last report again.
-
- You will be asked:
-
- Write to <S>creen, <P>rinter, or <D>isk?
-
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- If you have viewed the report on the screen and would now like
- to go ahead and print it out on paper, or if you would like to
- print out an additional copy of the report, press <P>. Any
- comparison modes and comparison values that were just used to
- select records by will still be in effect during the next print-
- out. (If you want to change these values, you must have saved
- your format after creating it and need to go back to the Report
- Format List in order to be able to go back through the Record
- Choice Menu.)
-
- If you would like to send the report to a disk file for future
- printing or rearranging by a text editor or word processor,
- press <D>. You will then be asked for the Output File name and
- the report that would print on the printer will be sent to a
- disk file instead.
-
- From this point you may also transfer to the Label, Sort, or Main
- Menu sections of File Express. Just press the corresponding menu
- number.
-
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