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GLABEL - Generic Label Generator Copyright (c) 1988, 1989 Ken Juneau Released for public consumption Glabel - Generic Label Generator 06/08/1989 Page 1 Ken Juneau Preface In December of 88 I realized that I had to once again dig out all of the old Christmas cards I had received in the previous years from friends and relatives. Well my nature being anti-organized left me filling out Christmas cards for a couple of weeks until I finally uncovered all the addresses required to complete my yearly mailing list of cards. Again, I went out to the local computer store looking for a mailing list program that would allow selective scheduling of labels automatically through externally defined report format files. I found quite a few pieces of software that handle label printing, but none of them had all of the features that I wanted, so I sat down at night for a couple of weeks and GLABEL is the result of those efforts. I have spent quite a few years writing software for "the other guy" and this one was for my own satisfaction. GLABEL is a copyrighted piece of code but I am releasing it to PUBLIC DOMAIN, so feel free to distribute it to everyone who needs this sort of application. Glabel - Generic Label Generator 06/08/1989 Page 2 Ken Juneau Table of Contents Preface.............................................................1 Table of Contents...................................................2 I. Introduction........................................................3 II. Installing Glabel...................................................3 A. Floppy disk..................................................3 B. Hard disk....................................................3 C. Executing Glabel.............................................3 III. System menu.........................................................4 A. Navigational keys............................................4 IV. File options........................................................5 V. Edit options........................................................5 VI. Label format........................................................6 A. Format name..................................................6 B. Copies.......................................................6 C. Width........................................................6 D. Pattern print................................................6 E. Scheduled print..............................................6 F. Filter records...............................................6 1. Range...................................................6 2. Contains................................................6 3. Equal...................................................6 4. Not equal...............................................6 G. Sort records.................................................6 Glabel - Generic Label Generator 06/08/1989 Page 3 Ken Juneau I. Introduction GLABEL is a mailing label scheduled print application that will allow you to enter label data once and attach multiple schedules to the label. A schedule is only limited to your personal mailing requirements and may be altered to fit your needs. Once a schedule has been established and attached to a label you will be required to create label format files which are interpreted and executed by this application. This frees you from remembering when a label must be created to accomplished a required activity. It should be noted that this application is new and may (most likely) have some bugs that I have not uncovered to date. II. Installing Glabel A. Floppy disk Copy the GLABEL.EXE program to a newly formatted floppy in one of the following fashions depending on your PC's configuration. COPY [src drive:]GLABEL.EXE [dest drive:]/V B. Hard disk Create a subdirectory on your hard disk named GLABEL and copy the GLABEL.EXE file from your floppy drive into the newly created subdirectory. MD [drive:]\GLABEL COPY [src drive:]\GLABEL.EXE [dest drive:]\GLABEL/V CD [dest drive:]\GLABEL C. Executing Glabel To execute Glabel, just type the name GLABEL and press return, within a few seconds the menu screen should appear. If executing for the first time Glabel will create two system files in your logged directory named LCONFIG.SYS and SCHEDULE.SYS. These files are used by Glabel and should not be modified outside of this application. LCONFIG.SYS contains information about the unit Glabel is running on and SCHEDULE.SYS holds your personal list of schedules. Glabel - Generic Label Generator 06/08/1989 Page 4 Ken Juneau III. System menu The system menu consists of four options across the top line of your screen. The options are File, Edit, Label Format and Environment and may be accessed through any of the following navigational keys. A. Navigational keys Use the following methods when selecting a menued option. HOME Always moves to the top of a pull down menu or to the left most option within a horizontal menu. This action does not activate the option, it just repositions the highlighted menu bar. END Always moves to the bottom of a pull down menu or to the right most option within a horizontal menu. This action does not activate the option, it just repositions the highlighted menu bar. RETURN Activates the menu option currently highlighted. CSR UP or CSR LEFT Moves the highlighted selection bar up one option within the selection list or left while viewing a horizontal menu. If you are currently at the beginning of a menu the selection bar will wrap around to the last option in the menu. If viewing a pull down menu and the LEFT key is pressed the current menu is deactivated and the next pull down menu to the left of your current option is activated. CSR DOWN or CSR RIGHT Moves the highlighted selection bar down one option within the selection list or right while viewing a horizontal menu. If you are currently at the end of a menu the selection bar will wrap around to the first option in the menu. If viewing a pull down menu and the RIGHT key is pressed the current menu is deactivated and the next pull down menu to the right of your current option is activated. ACCELERATOR KEYS All menu options may be accessed with accelerator keys for fast access to the option. The accelerator keys will be highlighted in color from the rest of the options within the menu list. By pressing one of these keys the option will be selected and activated as if you pressed return. Glabel - Generic Label Generator 06/08/1989 Page 5 Ken Juneau IV. File options When the file options menu is selected the following options are available for use. Open - Open a predefined database for access Create - Create a new database and required index files Delete - Delete a current database and all indexes Export - Currently inactive, check future release Import - Currently inactive, check future release O/S - Exit to DOS A data file must be opened for access prior to attempting to manipulate the data which may reside within a given data file. You should only have to create a data file once but multiple data files are supported. V. Edit options The following options are currently available under Edit options. Add Adds new label data and supports attached schedules Change Allows you to change a label and / or schedule. After entering the label data press escape to continue editing the schedule attached to the label. Delete Yes, you guessed it ... This will delete a label record and associated schedule codes. Glabel - Generic Label Generator 06/08/1989 Page 6 Ken Juneau VI. Label format This option will create a label format file for printing your selected labeling requirements. An external file is created from this option which stores the filters and selection criteria for the current label group. At some future date you will be able to pass these formats on the command line to Glabel and it will process them in batch. The options are pretty self explanatory. The only rule I impose is ESCAPE updates and backs out of a current option. So if you are changing a report format, the changes will happen. A brief description of the format file options are listed below. A. Format name This is the external DOS filename, the extension of ".FMT" is attached to your file handle. B. Copies The number of copies of the currently selected set of labels. C. Width The number of labels across the current sheet loaded into the printer. (As of this date only one label per line is supported by Glabel) D. Pattern print Prompts you at execution time for printer alignment. (Y/N response required) E. Scheduled print If the label group is to be date checked or a SPECIAL selection as been selected for a label schedule you should identify which schedule is required. If "Y"es is selected the current system schedule codes are displayed on the screen for your selection. F. Filter records This option allows you to filter from all records or only the ones that pass the schedule tests above. 1. Range Selects a range of Zip codes to print. 2. Contains Tests a record to match the characters supplied for this test. 3. Equal Absolute record match required for the records to pass and print through this test. 4. Not equal Any records that are not equal to the characters you supply will pass and print through this test. G. Sort records This will allow you to select a label field to sort on prior to printing any records. Glabel - Generic Label Generator 06/08/1989 Page 7 Ken Juneau *NOTE: Filter and Scheduled Print are not mutually exclusive and each function will operate independent of the current settings. In other words, if you are processing scheduled print then only scheduled print will be tested for filters. But if you are not using scheduled print all records will be tested for the filters option if selected.