Current Shareware 1994 January/SHAR194.ISO/geneolog/kinkard2.exe/HELP

Text File | 1993-08-03 | 13KB | 427 lines

                           OVERVIEW
     The information for each family group is contained in two successive

records; one is the family line(parents, spouse, children); the other,

data (dates and place of birth, death, notes on occupation, marriage).

With this division lineage can be followed without the distraction of

other data. It also allows the printing of family records with lineage on

one side of a card and family data on the back of that card.



     For this purpose, the program prints to two files "KFRONT" and

"KBACK".  These files can be  manipulated in a word processor to print (in

two passes, one for the front and one for the back) family records with

lineage on one side of the card and family data on the other.



START PROGRAM AND READ THE TWO SAMPLE RECORDS


     From the main menu, type "s" to see a list of records present in the

file KINLIST.  There are two. Move the highlighted bar over a name. Strike

Enter and that record will appear. The record can also be found from the

main menu by typing "r" for "Read", then typing the lastname or lastname

firstname (caps not required) at the prompt and striking Enter. When the

record appears the prompt asks if it's the record you want. Type "Y". The

record appears with "PgDn" or "PgUp" in the upper right corner of the

record.  This shows the direction of the companion record with additional

information for the same person. To view the companion record hit either

PgDn or PgUp (whichever appears on the side of the record).



     These two sample records are examples of one way to record your

family information. There are no form headings (Father______

Birthdate_____ etc.) in the record. Instead, the location of the data

identifies it. This permits a degree of flexibility in adding information.

 There is no "BIRTH DATE_____ BAPTISM DATE____"; it's a blank space where

birthdate is usually entered. If it happens to be a baptism date, add

"bap" to identify it as an exception. In other words, there are ten lines

in the two records that can be filled with any information for the

PERSON and SPOUSE; or a structure can be imposed using the information

requested by the prompts as guides for placing data in the record.



ENTER SOME DATA

   Now enter some data. From the main menu,type "c" to create a new

record. A prompt appears requesting the lastname firstname of the person

whose record it will be.  This entry can be made in lower or upper case. The

program converts it to upper case. Strike enter when complete. (Striking

enter with the entry line blank returns the program to the main menu

without creating a new record.)  The name appears in the record  on the

screen and a prompt appears requesting the spouse's name.  When this is

entered, the spouse's name appears and the program uses both names to

create the companion record. Prompts then appear requesting other

information. If the information is not known, strike enter to move to the

next prompt.


   Parents names should be entered as follows: first name, space, lastname

with the first letter of each capitalized and the remaining letters in

lower case (i.e. "John Doe").


   At the children prompt, the child's firstname only (no lastname) should

be entered.  This permits searching with the parent name to display their

childrens' records successively.


NO COMMAS

   Do not use commas in any of the information put into the records.  The

records are exported to the files KFRONT and KBACK as comma delimited

files.  The comma indicates the end of a field.



  The final prompt is "Create another record? Y/N". Type N to return to

the main menu.


NUMBER OF RECORDS

    The number of records that can be created depends on the amount of

disk space available. Striking "n" from the main menu displays the current

number of records.


MEMORY

    Striking "m" displays free memory available before and after loading

the names into memory for sorting and displaying "Who's On Board" and

after freeing that memory.


EDITING DATA IN A RECORD

   From the main menu, type "e" and at the prompt type in the lastname or

lastname firstname of the record to edit. The program searches for the

record and either reports "not found" or asks whether the record displayed

is the one you want.  If no, the search continues. If yes, the prompts for

changes appear. The Editing Keys active during editing are listed above

the record. As the prompts appear, any information already in the record

will be brought down to the prompt line. If no changes are to be made in

that line, hit enter and the next prompt appears.


EDITING KEYS ACTIVE

Cntrl End deletes to the end of the line.

Tab moves the cursor (for wide entries )to the  middle of the line to align
data at the same place in all records.

A second Tab strike brings the cursor back to the beginning of the line.

Backspace, Delete, Left & Right Arrows and Ins Spacebar (to
push the text along or overwrite it) are active.

CONTINUE EDITING A RECORD

     Prompts then appear for changes in the companion record.  At this

point you can hit "Esc" to return to the main menu or any other key to

make changes. Note that records cannot be deleted, but all of the

information on the record can be erased. "Blank" or a symbol, such as $,

can be used as a name to tag any set of two blanked records until they are

used for data. These will show up in the "Who's on Board" list as the word

Blank or the symbol used.



CREATE YOUR OWN RECORDS

    Now you're ready to create your own records.  To remove the sample

records, delete the file "kinlist" before starting the program. Then start

the program and create your own records. A new "kinlist" file will be

created.


                           SEARCHES

SEE WHO'S ON BOARD

     Striking "s" from the main menu displays an alphabetical list of all

names in Person or Spouse fields.  These records can be reached by moving

the highlighted bar over the name and striking "Enter" or through "read"

or "edit" from the main menu.


GENERAL SEARCH

     Striking "g" from the main menu permits a search for a word, number

or phrase in the remaining record fields (not the spouse or person

fields). For example, if you wanted to be sure that no commas were present

in the records, search for ",". This search can also be used to display

the records of siblings in succession. The parents firstname lastname

(i.e. "John Doe") are entered for the search. The records for John Doe as

a parent will be displayed thus records for his children will be displayed

in succession (hitting N in response to "End Search?").


                         PRINT TO FILE

     Select "p" from the main menu to print all records to two files

KFRONT and KBACK.  The records are exported to the files using a comma as

a field delimiter (the field is printed then a comma is printed to show

the end of the field)  and a carriage return as a record delimiter or end

of record indicator.


     There are eight fields.  The first is the number of the record. This

number does not appear in the record shown on the screen but is made

available for the printed card. The number is not permanently associated

with the same record, it is the number of records from the beginning of

that particular file.

     The other seven fields are those shown on the record as it appears on

the screen. Field 2 is the one at the top of the record as shown on the

screen and Field 8, the field at the bottom of the record.  Person and

Spouse, although on the same line, are two separate fields(Field4 &

Field5).




MERGING

     Using a word processor having a merge or mail-merge feature, the

files KFRONT and KBACK can be printed to file or printed directly on

cards. You can select which fields you want to appear on the card as well

as the position of each field on the card. Postcard sized cards (6in. x

4in.) are available with tractor feeds for dot matrix printers and in

sheet form (2 to a sheet) for laser printers. Other types of cards

available for laser printers in 8 x 11 1/2in. sheets are  3 x 5in. index

cards and rotary file cards 2 1/6 x 4in.


AN EXAMPLE OF MERGING USING WORDPERFECT

     For example, using WordPerfect 5.1 ((c) WordPerfect Corp.) with a dot

matrix printer and 6 x 4in. cards, create a primary file. Shf-F8, 3

Document, 2 Initial Codes, Shf-F8, 2 Page 7 paper size. Create a  paper

size of 6 x 4in. and return to the document screen to position the fields

by placing the cursor where you want the first field. Press Shift-F9, then

1 (field) then enter the field number at the prompt. Repeat this for all

other fields. Name and save the file.

    Now merge the primary file just created with the secondary file (KFRONT

or KBACK).  From a blank screen press Control-F9, then 1 (Merge).

Prompt requests primary filename. Enter it (with path if in different dir).

Prompt then requests secondary filename. Press Control-F5  to change the

prompt to "DOS Text Delimited File", enter the path and name of KFRONT.

The request for delimiters will appear. These should be "," for Field end

and "[CR]"for Record end. The merge  then takes place and the resulting

file appears on the screen. View the document (Shft F7 (6)) to be sure the

fields are arranged on the card as you want them and then print one page

to be sure that the printer is positioned properly.  After printing the

file remove the cards from the printer. Be sure to leave at least one

blank card at the end. Reverse the cards and insert them into the printer

positioned so that the printing will start on the back of the first card.

Repeat the above procedure for merging, using KBACK as the secondary file.


     For Laser printers there are a variety of cards available (Avery

Laser Card Products of Avery Dennison Co.) in 8.5 x 11in. sheets. These

include postcards 4 x 6in., index cards 3 x 5 in. and rotary file cards 2

1/6 x 4in. The slight curl in laser printing would present a problem in

mass commercial printing on the backs of cards, but with personal printing

with no time pressure the slight curl does not prevent printing on the

back in two passes.

     With two cards across the top of the 8 1/2 x 11in. sheet (such as the

rotary file cards) the word processor's Label format should be used. In

this format each label is a page. In order to match the correct card on

the front, the back pages must be printed in the order 2,1,4,3,6,5 etc.

This rearrangement can be done on the merged file. A page-break is added

to the end of the merged file and after moving to the beginning of the

file, a simple Macro(provided with the registered copies of the program)

rearranges the file in the order page 2, page1, page 4,page3 etc..  Also,

if the last label(page or card) doesn't fill out a row on the 8 1/2 x 11

sheet (i.e. there are an odd number of cards) a page-break is inserted

before that last label(page or card) to place it in its correct position

when printed. This is done after the merged file is rearranged. View

Document can be used to see what the printed sheet will look like.

    The arrangement and appearance of data on the cards can be varied

(referring to WordPerfect 5.1) with label margin settings, choice of

fonts, Justification(Left,Right,Center) or putting the fields in a 1

column 6 row table without lines.  The results of changing these variables

can be viewed on the word processor's View Document or by printing out on

ordinary paper before using cards.

    One order for the printed cards is to group the generations of one

family together with index cards separating the generations.  In doing

this it is convenient to have all of the members of a family in a separate

file. The file can be named with the family name for storing and then

changed to KINLIST for working on with the program.  For general searches,

it is convenient to have all records in one file.  A utility accompanies

the registered copies of the program that will combine files.  If there

were a separate Smith file, a Jones file and a Brown file; the utility

combines copies of each file into one KINLIST file.