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COPYRIGHT NOTICE
Copyright 1991, 1992, 1993 Chris M. Davies, all rights reserved.
No part of this manual or program may be reproduced in any way
without the advance written permission from the author.
You may make backup copies of Public Address or make copies of
the complete unregistered program and documentation on disk to
share with your friends or colleagues. If you wish to distribute
Public Address as a vendor, please read the file entitled
VENDOR.DOC. If you use Public Address for more than 30 days you
are required to register. Public Address is marketed as
Shareware. It is not free or in the public domain. Please read
the file entitled ASP.DOC.
TRADEMARKS
Brand and product names mentioned in this manual are the
trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders.
This manual was last updated on February 3, 1993.
This manual and program were written by
Chris M. Davies
Paradise Programming
P.O. Box 1231
Shelton, WA 98584
Compuserve 70322,231
1
LIMITATION OF LIABILITY
The information presented in this manual has been reviewed for
accuracy and is as complete as possible at the time of printing.
However, there may be changes made to the software subsequent to
the printing of the manual. Please look for any file named
READ.ME that would be in the directory Public Address resides.
This software has been tested as thoroughly as possible for
reliability, accuracy, and stability. Also, I have no control
over how this software is being used on your machine. Therefore,
Chris M. Davies assumes no liability for damages incurred
directly or indirectly from the use of this manual and/or
software.
This software is provided to you "as is," without warranty of any
kind, either expressed or implied, including but not limited to
the implied warranties for merchantability and fitness for a
particular purpose.
INTRODUCTION
Public Address is a data base program designed to hold
information on people. It is like a computerized Rolodex, but
better. It will do most anything anyone would need, and it is
very fast. The idea behind Public Address is simple, computer
programs do not have to be hard to learn or complicated to use,
they also do not have to take up two or three megabytes of your
hard disk. When writing Public Address I kept this in mind, so
although Public Address has a wealth of features which are easy
to use, it will still run on a 360k diskette.
Although quite capable of running on a 360k diskette, I would
strongly recommend that Public Address be installed on your hard
drive, if you have one. Running Public Address on a hard drive
will allow you to search through one thousand records in less
than one second. That type of speed is not attained when using a
floppy disk.
SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS
1) IBM compatible computer.
2) DOS version 3.2 or higher.
3) 384k of RAM base memory.
4) A single floppy drive. A hard drive is preferred for
greater speed and record capacity.
5) CGA, EGA, VGA, SVGA monitor. Public Address even supports
Tandy 16 color.
6) Dot-matrix or HP compatible laser printer is needed to print
labels.
7) A Hayes compatible modem if you wish to use the dial
feature.
2
TABLE OF CONTENTS
COPYRIGHT NOTICE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
TRADEMARKS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
LIMITATION OF LIABILITY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
INTRODUCTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
A QUICK START TO GET YOU GOING! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
WHY YOU NEED PUBLIC ADDRESS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
PROGRAM DESCRIPTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
IN THE BEGINNING . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
ABOUT DATA BASES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
THE MAIN MENU . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
SEARCH MENU . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
DISPLAY SCREEN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
PRINT MENU . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
ADDRESS EDITOR . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
PRODUCT INFO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
CONFIGURATION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
TIPS, TRICKS, AND TECHNICAL THINGS . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
INDEX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
3
Paradise Programming ____________________________________________
A QUICK START TO GET YOU GOING!
This section is for people who are already familiar with
computers and just want to get going on Public Address. I am
assuming you are familiar with Shareware and what it takes to
install it. If you are not familiar with Shareware, please see
the section entitled "In The Beginning" later in this manual.
By now you should have all the files that came on the disk in a
directory on your hard drive or are just running from a floppy.
Go to that directory or drive and type PA and press enter. The
program will start and create two files, one called PA.CFG and
one called FRIENDS.PAF. PA.CFG is your configuration file. It
tells Public Address how you want it to work for you. More on
that in a minute. FRIENDS.PAF is the file in which all your
information you enter into the program, will be stored. The file
extension PAF identifies it as a Public Address File.
Ok, by now you should be looking at the main menu. Notice on top
of the screen information will be displayed for you on how many
records you have, the label number, what input file you are
currently using and who the program is registered to. Your name
will be here when you decide to register. Notice that you
already have one record. It is information on me. I thought I
would throw this one in to help get you started.
Type 4 and lets go to the Address Editor. You have three choices
here. 1 Previous Menu, 2 Add, and 3 Edit or Delete. Let's type 2
and Add a record. We will then see the screen you will enter all
your addresses and information in. Let's take a closer look. On
the very top it will tell you how many records have been entered
and on the bottom is a quick reference on how to get around. It
says you can use Tab and Shift-Tab to move. In reality you can
also use your Arrow keys, the Enter key, the Tab key, Home, and
End. The exception is when you get to the bottom of the screen
and press Enter. The Enter key will then write the record. You
can also write the record by pressing the Esc key at anytime and
in any field. There is also a T at the very bottom right-hand
corner. This indicates you are in Typeover mode. If you press
your Insert key it will turn into an I.
Lets enter a record. Type Christmas in the Group field, enter
some information on your best friend or a relative in the rest of
the fields. Note: You must have something in either the Last
Name field or the Business field. If you do not Public Address
will assume you are done and exit the input screen.
Once you have all the information entered, press Esc once.
Notice that everything is still where you typed it and Total
Records Added now equals 1. The cursor will be placed back in
the Group field. Go ahead and put this person in your Vacation
group too. After all, they are a good friend. Just type
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_____________________________________________ Public Address 3.03
Vacation and press Esc again. Let's add another record and we
will call it quits for now. The cursor should still be in the
group field. Just press enter or tab and the cursor will move to
the Title field. Now hold your Ctrl key down and simultaneously
press End (Ctrl-End) and all the fields from the cursor down
should be clear. Type the second record in and when you get done
press Esc twice. The first time will write the record and the
second time will exit the screen.
Go ahead and press the Esc key again and exit the Address Editor
menu. Now we can do a little configuration so Public Address
will know what kind of system you have. Type 6 and the
configuration screen comes up. I will go through all the option
later so lets just get the ones that are really important for
now. You will need to select P (Printer type) if you have a
laser printer and then just type L. Most printers are connected
to LPT1, but if yours is not, you better change this too.
Everything else should do for now. Press Esc or X and exit back
to the MAIN MENU. Type 2 and you will see the Search Menu. You
can Search on any one of the fields listed, but just for this
Demo lets search on the Group field. Press 2. You should see
three groups listed to the right side of the screen. What we are
going to do is type ALL and press enter, but you could choose one
of the groups by typing the first letter or two and pressing
enter. Well, unless one of the records you entered has a last
name that is before mine you will see a record on me. Go ahead
and press enter a couple times and see all the records. When you
get to where it says at the bottom of the screen "There are no
more records to see!" you can press enter one more time and it
will take you back to the Search Screen. Press Esc to exit the
Search Screen.
Now type 3 for the Print Menu and then type 5 to setup the label
you would like to print on. If you have a laser printer choose
1, or 2 if you have a dot-matrix. Just enter the label # for the
label you want. Example: 4145 to print on a label that is 15/16"
x 3 1/2". This is the most common label size for dot-matrix
printers.
You should now be back at the Print Menu. Turn on your printer!
Now type 2 to print. The menu now looks just like the one at the
search menu. All the same choices. Select any field you want
and then type in the required response. Let's say you want to
print a label for my address so you can register this wonderful
program {grin}. Type 2 for group, now type P for Programmer and
press enter. It will start printing a label just the way you
like it.
Well, that is about it for a quick introduction to Public
Address. It will do much more and I encourage you to read the
rest of the Manual to get the full benefit of the program. Have
fun!
5
Paradise Programming ____________________________________________
WHY YOU NEED PUBLIC ADDRESS
AROUND THE HOME
I use Public Address to remind me of birthdays and anniversaries.
All you need to do is print from the birthday field and take your
labels to the store and get the cards. You can do the same thing
for Christmas or any other holiday. I also take preprinted
labels with me on vacation. Preprinted labels can be put on post
cards and a couple words entered and I am ready! Also, Public
Address may be useful for any clubs or support groups in which
you participate. The phone book is worth its weight in gold.
You will never have to write another phone number in the back of
your phone book.
REAL ESTATE
If you have clients looking for a particular house or piece of
property, just input their information in a record and put them
in a group that describes the kind of house or property they are
looking for. Example: 3BR 5ACRES or WATERFRONT could be a group
name. There is no limit to the amount of group names you may
have. Up to forty group names can be displayed on the screen.
Public Address would also work well to keep track of rental
property.
INDUSTRIAL
If you restock parts or just need to replace them occasionally,
you will never need to dig through that old stack of requisitions
again. You can list all the parts you use under group names.
For example, if you need a new motor, all you will need to do is,
bring up the group name MOTOR, and a list of all the suppliers
that you receive your motors from will be displayed. This would
also work well in a warehouse.
SHAREWARE AUTHORS
You can create a group name for every program you write. Enter
all the names under that group who have registered. When an
update comes out, just send that group to the printer and your
newsletter is on its way. You can also keep track of the disk
size and any other information you need in the memo spaces.
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_____________________________________________ Public Address 3.03
PROGRAM DESCRIPTION
Public Address is an easy to operate Address Data Base. Public
Address was designed to be inexpensive and useful for most small
businesses or at home. It requires very little learning time and
is extremely compact. It will work on a single floppy system or
notebook computers where disk space is at a premium.
Public Address features non-case sensitive searches on whole or
partial words. You can search on as little as one character. It
will search seven fields:
1) Group
2) Business
3) Name
4) City
5) Zip
6) Birthday Month
7) Country
Public Address will print Labels, Envelopes, Phone book, Report,
WordPerfect Secondary Merge File, and an ASCII File on the above
fields. It can be used on any dot-matrix or laser printer. If
you are going to print envelopes on your laser printer, your
printer must be Hewlett Packard compatible, (uses the PCL printer
language). You can even choose the fonts that are in your printer
from the program as long as your laser speaks the PCL-5 language.
If it does not, I have included a place so you can enter the
printer code yourself.
Public Address will print up to five lines per label. Everything
that is printed or displayed is left justified, no big gaps
between fields on your labels. You can have your return address
printed on every envelope.
Public Address has fields for: Group, Title, First Name, Last
Name, Business, Address, City, State, Zip+4, Country, Birthday,
Telephone Number, Fax number, and one-hundred sixty characters
for memo space.
There is no limitation to the amount of groups, records or input
files you may have. Password protection is provided and you can
also dial your phone. You can configure Public Address to sort
by Name or Zip-code and it will automatically delete duplicates.
You can turn automatic sorting off so you will not be bothered
waiting for it when you get a couple thousand records. Just
resort once a week or however often you want.
I offer custom programming to anyone who has nonstandard labels
to print, at a very reasonable price. The phone book is printed
by either NAME or BUSINESS and is on standard size paper. It is
indented to allow for binding holes to be punched. The phone
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Paradise Programming ____________________________________________
book is automatically sorted when printed. Public Address' phone
book includes last name, first name, business, city, state, dot-
leaders and the phone number.
Anything that can be sent to the printer can also be sent to a
file. Example: You would like to edit the phone book. All you
need to do is go to the configuration menu and chose T (Printer
port). There should be a string that reads LPT1. This is where
your output goes. LPT1 is your printer port. Give this a VALID
DOS name such as PHONE.BOK and then print the phone book from the
PRINT MENU. The whole phone book will go to a file in the
current directory and you can load this ASCII file into your
favorite Shareware text editor and edit it. I use another
Shareware program called 4BOOK that will take the file I created
and turn it into a book.
For information on 4BOOK write to Korenthal Associates, Inc
230 West 13th St.
New York, NY 10011
8
_____________________________________________ Public Address 3.03
IN THE BEGINNING
When you receive Public Address, you should back it up by making
a copy. Just place the disk containing the program and all the
files that came with it in drive A of your system. From your DOS
prompt, type (DISKCOPY A: A:) without the brackets of course.
Just insert a blank diskette in drive A when it tells you to put
the target disk in. To install Public Address just place the
disk you recieved into your A or B disk drive, make that drive
current, and type INSTALL and press enter. Follow the
instrutions on the screen.
The program should come with the following files:
1) PA.EXE The main program file.
2) TESTPRT.COM A utility to check your printer status.
3) MANUAL.DOC This manual.
4) VENDOR.DOC Information to shareware vendors.
5) REGISTER.DOC Registration information and order Form!
6) ASP.DOC Information about Shareware & The Association
of Shareware Professionals.
7) ADISCTRL This controls how the program accepts data.
8) MAIL51.WPM A WordPerfect 5.1 macro to convert merge
codes.
9) MAIL50.WPM A WordPerfect 5.0 macro to convert merge
codes.
10) LH51.WPM A WordPerfect 5.1 macro to help create a
merge letter.
11) LH50.WPM A WordPerfect 5.0 macro to help create a
merge letter.
12) MERGE.WPM A WordPerfect macro to merge the file's MAIL1
and MAIL2.
13) FILE_ID.DIZ Program information file for BBSes.
14) INSTALL.COM The main install program.
15) PAINSTAL.EXE Helps install program.
16) INSTALL.CMD Configuration for install program.
To print all the documentation, go to the directory Public
Address resides and at the DOS prompt type PRINT *.DOC. Make
sure your printer is on and has paper.
The only files that are absolutely needed to run Public Address
are PA.EXE, ADISCTRL and TESTPRT.COM. With these files in a
directory or on a separate disk, you can start Public Address by
typing PA and pressing ENTER. A message on the screen will inform
you the program is checking the configuration at this time. If
it does not find a file named PA.CFG in the current directory, it
will create one and put the default values in. If you have never
used Public Address before, it will also create a file called
FRIENDS.PAF. This file will be your input file. Public Address
will always remember the last input file you used and load it
next time you start the program providing your PA.CFG file is in
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Paradise Programming ____________________________________________
the current directory or drive. You can change input files from
the configuration screen in the program.
ABOUT DATA BASES
A Data Base is a program that will store information for you and
allow easy access to the information later. You will usually be
offered a choice how you want the information displayed, such as
labels, envelopes, phone book, report, or you can also have it
displayed to the screen. A Data Base will let you find this
information by searching on most fields.
Before we get started, there are some words that are commonly
used when talking about a Data Base. FILES: A file is a
collection of information with a physical name on disk. You can
compare it to one of the drawers in a filing cabinet. A valid
DOS filename will have eight characters or less with a
three-letter extension or less, separated by a period. There are
certain letters that are not allowed in a file name and you
should check your DOS manual for that list. An example of a
valid file name would be: ADDRESS.PAF Notice that I only used
seven letters in the name with three letters for the extension.
The name and the extension have to be separated by a period.
RECORDS: A record is the information in a file. You can compare
it to a file folder in the filing cabinet drawer. A record will
hold information on one person. You can have more than one
record on each person and you can have as many records as your
disk will hold.
FIELDS: A field is a part of a record that holds one piece of
information. Public Address has fourteen fields. They are:
Group (10), Title (20), First Name (20), Last Name (20), Business
(40), Address (40), City (20), State or Province (20), Zip+4
(20), Country (40), Birthday (08), Phone # (20), Fax # (20), and
Memo (160). The number in the brackets ( ) represents the number
of characters in that field. Fields are searched when you want
to view information or print. The fields you can search are:
Group, Last Name, Business, City, Zip, Country, and Birthday
month.
THE MAIN MENU
P) Password.
P is not listed on the Main Menu, but is an option for you
to create a password or to quit using one. Just type P, and
follow the directions. DO NOT FORGET YOUR PASSWORD!
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_____________________________________________ Public Address 3.03
1) EXIT TO DOS.
This will take you out of the program, back to your DOS
prompt.
2) SEARCH MENU.
Search menu will enable you to search for information on a
record in the input file. You can search and display
information on the screen, dial the phone, or print a single
label or envelope. See SEARCH MENU later in this manual.
3) PRINT MENU.
Print menu will enable you to print labels, envelopes, phone
book, report, mail merge file, and ASCII file. You can also
setup your labels from here. This needs to be done before
printing for the first time. Public Address also reminds
you of your label number on the title screen. See PRINT
MENU later in this manual.
4) ADDRESS EDITOR.
Address editor will enable you to Add, Edit, or Delete
records. See ADDRESS EDITOR later in this manual.
5) PRODUCT INFO.
This option provides you with all the information necessary
to reach me in case you have problems, need special
programming or want to register. See PRODUCT INFO later in
this manual.
6) CONFIGURATION.
This is one of the most important options on the main menu.
You should select this option first when you receive Public
Address. You will need to enter information so Public
Address will know how to work for you. Please see
CONFIGURATION later in this manual.
SEARCH MENU
The Search Menu is for searching and displaying information on
the screen or printing one record at a time. The following
choices are available from this menu:
1) Previous Menu.
Moves you back one screen to the Main Menu.
2) GROUP.
Group will ask for the group name to search on. All the
groups you have in your input file (up to forty) will be
listed on the right-hand side of your screen. Type the
group name in either upper or lower case letters. You can
even type in part of the word. Example: You have three
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Paradise Programming ____________________________________________
groups; one is named PA10, another is named PA20, and the
last one is named PA21. If you typed PA and press enter,
you would see all the records in all three groups. If you
were to type PA2, you would see all the records in the
group's PA20, and PA21. Now, if you where to type PA21, the
only group you would see is the one by that name. The more
letters you enter, the more exact the search will be. This
works for all searches in all the fields with the exception
of the Birthday field. You can have more than forty groups,
but only forty will be displayed on the screen.
If you have some people who are not in a group, just press
ENTER and it will start displaying them one at a time on the
screen. See (DISPLAY SCREEN). If you wish to see all of
the records you have in your input file, type ALL in the
group name to be searched and Public Address will display
all the entries, one at a time. If no records are found,
the following message will appear on the bottom of the
screen: "THERE ARE NO MORE RECORDS TO SEE, HIT ENTER TO
CONTINUE". This means you have looked through the input
file and have either viewed all the records in that group or
there are no records to view. If you could not find a
record you know is there, you should check your spelling and
make sure you entered it correctly.
3) LAST NAME.
When you select 3 from the Search Menu, it will ask you for
the person's last name. You must enter the person's last
name or at least the first letter or two. Just as with
GROUP from above.
4) CITY.
City works exactly as Name. See Name above.
5) ZIP.
Zip works exactly as Name. See Name above.
6) BIRTHDAY.
When you select Birthday, Public Address will ask you for
the person's birthday month. It must be as you entered it
in the input file. An example would be 08 for August or 01
for January. Public Address will then display every record
with a birthday in that month, one at a time on the screen.
The birthday month is the first two characters in the
birthday field.
7) BUSINESS.
Business works exactly as Name. See Name above.
8) COUNTRY.
Country works exactly as Name. See Name above.
12
_____________________________________________ Public Address 3.03
DISPLAY SCREEN
With the Display Screen, you can view the information on your
monitor without having to print it. You can also dial your
phone, and print single labels or envelopes from this menu. The
Display Screen will show one record at a time listing all the
information in the record. To see the next record press ENTER.
To exit, type 1 and you will be back at the SEARCH MENU. If you
would like to dial the person on the phone, make sure your modem
is on and type 2. After the phone starts to ring, you will need
to pick your receiver up from your phone and press enter on the
computer. Public Address is not a communication program. It
only acts like an auto-dialer. In order to print a single label
or envelope, turn on your printer and type 3. You will be asked
how many labels to print. Just enter the number and press enter.
NOTE! You must be setup to print ONLY single labels or envelopes
in order to print from the Display Screen. You must also have
your output going to a printer and not a file. MAKE SURE YOUR
PRINTER IS ON AND READY!
I have a record on myself in my input file. When I need some
return address labels I just print them from the Display screen.
I search on my name and when my record is on the screen I type 3
and tell how many I want and it does the rest.
PRINT MENU
The Print Menu is for printing only. If you wish to view your
records, go to the Search Menu first. The following choices are
available from this menu:
1) PREVIOUS MENU.
Previous Menu, moves you back one screen to the Main Menu.
2) PRINT.
If you choose PRINT, Public Address will ask if you want to
print 2) GROUP, 3) NAME, 4) CITY, 5) ZIP, 6) BIRTHDAY,
7) BUSINESS, 8) COUNTRY. Choosing one of these is just
like choosing one on the SEARCH MENU except it will print
the labels, envelopes, or file instead of displaying them.
Most of your printing will be done from here. When you are
setup to print labels, envelopes, WordPerfect Secondary
Merge file, or ASCII file, you will choose this option. If
you are printing a WordPerfect Secondary Merge file or ASCII
file, you will be prompted for a file name. If you do not
enter a name, Public Address will print to a file named
MAIL2 for your WordPerfect Secondary Merge file and
ASCII.TXT for your ASCII file. You can use a path and file
name of up to 50 characters.
13
Paradise Programming ____________________________________________
3) PHONE BOOK.
If you choose PHONE BOOK from the menu, Public Address will
print a phone book for you alphabetically, last name, first
name, business name, city, state, dot leaders and the phone
numbers as you have entered them in the input file. It does
this for the whole input file. It will not print someone's
name twice even if you have them in two or more groups
unless they have two different phone numbers. If you have
chosen to have your phone book sorted by business, the
business name will be on the left side of the page instead
of the person's last name.
4) REPORT.
If you choose REPORT, Public Address will ask if you want a
report for 2) GROUP, 3) NAME, 4) CITY, 5) ZIP, 6)
BIRTHDAY, 7) BUSINESS, 8) COUNTRY. Choosing one of these
is just like choosing one on the SEARCH MENU, except it will
print a report instead of displaying them. Type in the
appropriate response and a report will be sent to your
printer. The report contains all of the information you
have in your input file and formats it in report form.
5) SETUP LABELS.
This is where you format which label or envelope you would
like to print on. EVERY TIME YOU WANT TO PRINT ON A
DIFFERENT LABEL OR ENVELOPE SIZE YOU WILL NEED TO COME
HERE!
Choose 1 if you have a Laser printer. All you need to do is
choose a label format you like and type in the appropriate
label number. These label numbers are Avery label numbers.
If you have Avery labels already, get the number from the
box.
In order to print envelopes with a laser printer, your
printer must be Hewlett Packard compatible. It has to
understand the PCL language. When printing envelopes be
sure to select envelopes on your printer menu too. Example:
I have a Hewlett Packard 3P. I press the ON LINE button to
take the printer OFF LINE. Then I press the MENU button
once and SIZE appears in the window. I then press the +
button until COM10 appears in the Window. I then press
ENTER to select it and press ON LINE one more time to put
the printer back on line. If you choose envelopes, you will
notice an extension at the end of the description that is
either PRO or FIX. What this means, is you can print either
PROportional fonts or FIXed fonts. You will need to access
the internal fonts from your printer for this. If you are
only printing envelopes, you can either set this up on the
menu from your printer or you can use Fonts on the
configuration menu to set up your printer from Public
Address. See CONFIGURATION. Public Address automatically
sets your printer to landscape for printing envelopes and
resets it when done.
14
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Chose 2 if you have a Dot-matrix printer. Enter the
appropriate four digit number for the label you want to
print and press ENTER. The envelopes Public Address prints
for dot-matrix printer are tractor feed. If you choose to
print envelopes, you will also be prompted to enter the line
spacing between the last line on your envelope being printed
(The country field on the sending address) and the first
line on the next envelope being printed (your name on your
return address). This number will be somewhere around 28
for most envelopes. To get an idea, figure six lines per
inch or about 6 lines per 25.5 Centimeters. The easiest way
to figure this is to measure from the top of one envelope to
the top of the next. So let's say it is seven inches or 178
Centimeters. The formula would be 7 x 6 - 14 = 28 (envelope
spacing). This is seven inches times six lines per inch
minus fourteen equals what you should enter for envelope
spacing. You may want to experiment with this before
printing envelopes. Once you have it, you will never have
to change it again unless you change envelope size. The 14
is the amount of lines Public Address prints on an envelope:
Return address = 5, Sending address = 5, and 4 lines in
between. You could also adapt this to work with large
shipping label. Just set it up to print with no return
address and adjust the spacing accordingly.
Choosing 3 will allow you to print a mail merge file to be
used with WordPerfect. You will be prompted for a file name
when you print. If you do not enter a filename, MAIL2 is
the default. This file will be written to the current
directory. You will need to convert this file to work with
WordPerfect. To do this; I have included two WordPerfect
5.1 and 5.0 macros. One is called MAIL51.WPM and the other
is MAIL50.WPM. These macros will assume that the file MAIL2
is in a directory named PA. You can always edit it to suit
your needs. To use them, copy the files named MAIL51.WPM or
MAIL51.WPM in the directory Public Address is in to your
WordPerfect Directory. COPY C:\PA\MAIL51.WPM C:\WP51 or
COPY C:\PA\MAIL50.WPM C:\WP50 should do the trick for most
people. To use them just type (Alt-F10) and when it ask for
the macro name type MAIL51 or MAIL50. The file Public
Address creates will then be compatible with WordPerfect. I
have also included two other files: LH51.WPM and LH50.WPM.
These will help you get a start on your primary file for a
merge. I have also included one last file to help you,
MERGE.WPM. This file will do the merge for you. It will
depend on you having the primary file named MAIL1 in your
default directory for WordPerfect and MAIL2 in the PA
directory on drive C. You can always merge the letter in
the regular way (check your WordPerfect Manual). What
MAIL51.WPM does is retrieve MAIL2 from the C:\PA directory
(CTRL-F5, 1, 2) and convert the old merge codes (CTRL-F9, 3)
and exit with save (F7 Save document? Yes C:\PA\MAIL2,
15
Paradise Programming ____________________________________________
Replace? Yes, Exit WP? No). What MAIL50.WPM does is
retrieve MAIL2 from the C:\PA directory (CTRL-F5, 1, 2) and
go to the end of the file (Home Home Down Arrow) and exit
with save (F7 Save document? Yes C:\PA\MAIL2, Replace? Yes,
Exit WP? No). This file needs to be retrieved in this
manner and saved before it will work with WordPerfect. This
is necessary because WordPerfect will write what is referred
to as header information in a file to identify it as a
WordPerfect file. This header information will tell
WordPerfect what fonts and what printer you are using among
other things.
The secondary merge file will contain nine fields for you to
choose from for your merges. I tried to include most
everything you would need. I hope I did not miss anything.
The mail merge fields are:
Field-1 Title First-Name Last-Name
Field-2 Business
Field-3 Address
Field-4 City, State Zip-code
Field-5 Country
Field-6 First Name
Field-7 Title Last-Name
Field-8 Phone Number
Field-9 Fax Number
Choosing number 4 will allow you to print a straight ASCII
file. It will look like a single label with page breaks.
You will be prompted for a filename when you print. If you
do not enter a filename, ASCII.TXT is the default. This
file will be written to the current directory.
ADDRESS EDITOR
When you select 4 on the Main Menu, it will take you to a
menu which will ask you 1) Previous Menu, 2) Add, 3) Edit
or Delete. Select 2 and the screen you will see is the
Input Record Screen. The default for Public Address when
doing any editing is typeover. This is indicated by a T on
the bottom right corner of the screen. You must press your
Insert key if you want to be in the insert mode, indicated
by an I on the bottom right corner of the screen. When you
are in the input record screen, enter the information into
the appropriate place, tab to the next field and repeat the
process. The LAST NAME and/or BUSINESS NAME is required for
each record. If you do not have a last name or a business
name, it will not write your record and will drop you out of
the Input Record Screen back to the ADDRESS EDITOR Menu!
When you are finished with the record, press ESC. The
16
_____________________________________________ Public Address 3.03
record will be written to disk, the counter at the top of
the screen will increment one and the cursor will return to
the group field again. All the data you entered will remain
in the same fields so you can enter the same person in more
than one group, all you will need to do is change the group
name and press ESC. If you want to clear all the fields,
just hold down the Ctrl key and press the End key (Ctrl-
End). This will clear all the fields so you can enter the
next record. When you get all your records entered, just
press ESC twice. This will take you back to the ADDRESS
EDITOR Menu.
There are lots of ways to get around in the Input Record
Screen. I suggest you try using your Arrow keys, Enter,
Tab, Shift-Tab, Home, and End.
If you select 3 from the ADDRESS EDITOR menu, Public Address
will take you to a screen which will ask what to look for:
2) GROUP, 3) NAME, 4) CITY, 5) ZIP, 6) BIRTHDAY, 7)
BUSINESS, 8) COUNTRY. After you choose one, type in the
response, press ENTER and you will see the first record you
are searching for. If you want to edit the record, select 2
and the cursor will be placed in the group box of the Edit
screen. The information in the record will be displayed
above the box. You do not have to change all the fields,
just the field you want updated. Example: You want to give
someone a new address, TAB to the address field and type in
the new address and press Esc. The record is then updated
and you are returned to the menu with the same record
displayed on the screen. You can edit as many fields as you
need. To clear a field just put an asterisk (*) in that
field, if you want to delete someone from your list, select
3 on the menu. Use caution when you do this. Once a record
is deleted, it is permanently removed from your file. Do
not forget you may have someone in more than one group. You
will need to delete them from every group. If you choose 4
on the menu you can add the record to another group. Note:
This will not delete the person from any group, it will
create another record for that person and change the group
name.
Once you have seen all the records that were being searched,
you will get a screen which informs you the input file is
being resorted, unless you have turned auto sorting off.
Once the file is resorted, you will be returned to the
ADDRESS EDITOR menu.
17
Paradise Programming ____________________________________________
PRODUCT INFO
When you select 5 from the MAIN MENU, you will see a couple
different screens depending if you are registered or not.
Basically, the screens will tell you how to order Public
Address or how to get in contact with me for questions you
may have. There is a 1-800 number to call FOR ORDERS ONLY!
Please do not call this number for information on the
program. All they know is how much the program cost and how
to send your order as fast as possible. If you need
information on the program, please write me or send E-mail
on CompuServe. I have also included my phone number.
Please call between 5pm and 10pm any day except Mondays,
Pacific Time zone. I will answer all letters from
registered users as well as people evaluating Public
Address. Any suggestions on improving Public Address would
be appreciated. I really do listen! For the complete list
of benefits for registering Public Address, please read the
file entitled REGISTER.DOC.
CONFIGURATION
When you select number 6 from the MAIN MENU you will see the
CONFIGURATION SCREEN. You will have the following choices.
X) EXIT AND SAVE.
Will take you out of the Configuration menu and update the
PA.CFG file.
S) PRIMARY SORT FIELD.
This is how your input file will be sorted. Valid choices
are either Name or Zip-code. Enter N or Z in this place,
upper or lower case. When you enter N the primary sort
field will be last name, the secondary sort field will be
first name. When you enter Z the primary sort field will be
Zip, the secondary sort field will be last name, the third
sort field will be first name.
P) PRINTER TYPE.
This is for the type of printer you will be using with
Public Address. Valid choices are Laser or Dot-matrix.
Just put L or D in this place, upper or lower case.
H) PHONE TYPE.
This is for the type of phone you have. Valid entries would
be either Tone or Pulse. You can put either T or P in this
space, upper or lower case.
B) PHONE BOOK SORT.
This has nothing to do with the Primary Sort Field from
above. This will dictate the kind of phone book you choose.
18
_____________________________________________ Public Address 3.03
The phone book can either be listed by Name or Business.
Valid entries would be N or B, upper or lower case.
C) COM PORT.
This is the COMmunication port you are using on your system.
All you need to do is enter the COM port number. Valid COM
port numbers would be 1, 2, 3, or 4. Most people would use
either 1 or 2. This entry is not needed if you are not
going to use the Dial feature.
T) PRINTER PORT.
This is where all your output will go. You can designate
any port you have your printer connected. Valid ports would
be LPT1 through LPT4 or COM1 through COM4. Please use either
all upper or lower case letters when entering port names.
You can also enter any VALID DOS NAME, and all your output
will go to that file. Be careful! If you enter a file name
that already exist that file will be overwritten. You can
also enter path names up to 50 character's total. An
example: C:\ADDRESS\LABELS.TXT You must remember to change
this file name every time you print or the previous file
will be overwritten. The data IS NOT appended to the end of
the file. The path must already exist.
F) FONT
If you have a Laser printer that is HP 3 compatible your in
for a real treat. I have included an area that will now let
you choose the fonts you would like to use. Even if your
printer is not a laser that is HP 3 compatible it will be a
lot easier for you to control it now. Read on!
Laser printer users:
First of all, P from above (Printer Type) has to be set to L
for Laser. Now if you choose F you will be presented with a
menu that will allow you to choose a font that is compatible
with most Laser printers that are HP 3 compatible. That
means they will use the PCL 5 printer language. If your
printer does not, do not despair, you can choose L -User
definable and enter your own printer code for the font you
want. There quite easy, just read the following section for
Dot-matrix printers on how to do it. Everyone else can just
choose one of the fonts from the list and will be returned
to the configuration screen.
Dot-matrix printer users:
You should have P from above (Printer Type) set to D for
Dot-matrix. You will now be placed in a screen that will
allow you to enter your own Printer code for the fonts in
your printer. Here is how: hold the Alt key down and at the
same time enter the three digit code from your printer
manual for the font you want. Example: Lets say your
printer manual says the printer code for a proportional font
19
Paradise Programming ____________________________________________
is 026 011 016. Now what you would do, is hold the Alt key,
type 026 and then release the Alt key. Then push it down
again, type 011 and release the Alt key again. Then hold it
down one more time, type 016 and release it, then just press
the Esc key to exit and accept the entry. Special note: In
order to enter the escape sequence 027 you will need to just
place the / (forward slash) in its place. Some codes can be
entered normally by just putting the letters in. From my
understanding, to set an IBM Proprinter X24 compatible
printer up to print proportional fonts you need to enter
/P1. Letter quality would be /E. So, you can see that some
control codes can be entered using the standard keys on the
key board. Be sure to read you printer manual first. Good
luck!
I) INPUT FILE PATH.
The first part of this is your path to you input files. If
it is blank you can enter the path you want to store your
input files or just leave it blank and the current directory
will be chosen. It is best to just let the program take
care of this for you and just press enter. The current path
will be entered and you will be offered all the current
Public Address Files to the right of the screen. If you do
store your files someplace else, you can enter the full
path. Do not add the trailing \ (back slash). An example
would be C:\PA\FILES. This path must already exist or else
you will get a message telling you it does not and the
current path will be selected for you.
The next step is to select one of the files from the right.
This is your input file. (The file Public Address accesses
to store or find your records). You can have as many input
files as you want, but you can only use one at a time. This
is where you put the full file name. You can use up to 8
characters. If you enter Illegal DOS file name characters
they will be converted to the - (dash) character. I try to
protect people from themselves as much as possible. Do not
use an extension on the filename. The default is PAF and
can not be changed.
If the file you enter does not exist, Public Address will
create it. You can use different input files for different
people, such as work and home or maybe different clubs.
Remember . . . the phone book prints the whole input file.
You might not want your friend's phone number showing up on
the company phone book.
20
_____________________________________________ Public Address 3.03
R) RETURN ADDRESS.
Here, you enter the return address you want on your
envelopes. EVERY ENVELOPE YOU PRINT WILL HAVE THIS RETURN
ADDRESS! If you have preprinted envelopes or if you do not
want a return address printed on every envelope, leave this
place blank.
If you decide to use this feature, just type your name,
business name, and address, up to five lines and 40
characters on each line and press ENTER at the end of each
line. Public Address will take care of the rest. You can
edit your return address at any time just by selecting R on
the CONFIGURATION menu. To clear the fields, do everything
you would for editing them except, press the Delete key in
the field you want to delete.
D) DYNAMIC MENU'S.
I have had a lot of request to change some of the field
names. For whatever reason, I do not know, but your request
is my command (if possible). Dynamic menus are menus that
you get to rename to whatever you want. Instead of
searching on Name maybe you would want to call it Part # and
search on that. It would be handy for our neighbors up
north in Canada. They have Provinces instead of States.
When you choose D you will see three columns. The first
column is the Defaults. The second column is what they are
now. It should be the same if you are using Public Address
for the first time. The third column is blank. You will
only need to change the Menu name you want to change. Let's
go to the state field. Now Enter Province in that field and
press Esc. Now everywhere in the program that State used to
appear, Province will be there now.
E) SORT EVERY TIME.
This is for people who really do not care if their data is
sorted or not. You can get a little bit more speed out of
the program when using the Address Editor when this is set
to No. Valid selections are either Yes or No. Note: If it
is set to No you may get duplicate labels printed under
certain circumstances. It would be a good idea to sort your
records before doing any major print jobs to avoid
duplicates. You can sort everything by selecting Yes here
and going to the Address Editor and selecting 2 for Add and
then just press Esc and let it do the sorting.
21
Paradise Programming ____________________________________________
TIPS, TRICKS, AND TECHNICAL THINGS
Printing I tried to make Public Address work with a variety
of computers and printers. Public Address has
error checking for printers, but because of the
wide variety of printers on the market, it would
be impossible to cover them all. This is why it
is important that you set up your printer AND TURN
IT ON when you print with Public Address. If you
do not have your printer on when Public Address
sends either an printer code or data to the
printer, you will get a message that tells you to
check your printer. Make sure your printer is on
and has paper. If you do not check your printer,
you will get a DOS message that will look like
this:
Write fault error writing to device LPT1
Abort, Retry, Ignore, Fail?
All you need to do is turn your printer on, make
sure it has paper and press R for Retry. Setting
up your printer only involves making sure that it
is on and has paper or labels.
Fonts to use You will need to ensure your printer is set to
print 10 characters per inch with 12 point
characters (the standard size for ASCII
characters). The only exceptions to this would be
if you are printing single labels, a report, or
envelopes. In these situations you can use
proportional printing, but you must still use 12
point characters. Everything is dependent on this
size font. If you do not use this size, you may
have unpredictable output. Most printers require
no setup because these are already the default
settings. When selecting fonts in the
configuration screen be sure to take this into
consideration.
Undo If you ever start entering something in a field
and decide you have made a mistake all you need to
do is hold the Ctrl key down and press A (Ctrl-A).
This will only work as long as you did not use
your arrow keys first. Also, in the configuration
screen. If you are unsure what needs to be in a
field and just want eveything to go back to the
defaults, delete the field you want and it will
automaticaly go to the defaults.
22
_____________________________________________ Public Address 3.03
SHARE.EXE There seems to be a compatibility problem with
SHARE.EXE. For those of you who are not familiar
with SHARE.EXE, it comes with DOS. If you have it
loaded in upper memory and plan on using Public
Address to print more than one print job after
starting it, you will be out of luck. It will
print the first time just fine. The second time
it drops you back out to DOS. It took me more
than a week to find the culprit of this one and it
turned out to be my compiler. Microsoft takes
responsibility for the compiler and there does not
seem to be much I can do about it other than
upgrade my compiler to the next version at a cost
of $500. Well, maybe next time.
Sequential I have had a few people ask me if I can make the
Files access of the files go forward and backwards.
Well, no. I guess I could if I really wanted to,
but I feel this would limit the program in other
ways. The way it's done now is called sequential
file access. This simply means a record is read
from disk processed and put back, then the next
record is read, processed and put back. No more
than one record is ever in the computers' memory.
This enables the program to have unlimited
records, and run on computers that do not have a
lot of memory.
Postscript Public Address will not print using a postscript
Printers printer. I have heard there are programs out that
will allow a postscript printer to work with
regular DOS programs. Sorry!
Faster Public Address will be plenty fast for most people
Searching with its searches, but for the real speed demons
out there here is another trick. When searching
on something, enter as few characters as possible.
It will not be a big difference, but it will make
a difference.
Label sizes If you add up the characters in the title field,
First Name field, and Last Name field. You will
find they add up to 60 characters in all. Well
it's quite obvious this will not fit on a label if
you do decide to use all the characters in all the
fields. If the label will only hold forty
characters that is all you are going to get. The
rest of the characters will not carry over to the
next label. They will just not be printed.
23
Paradise Programming ____________________________________________
Run time Once in a while something could go wrong. It
Errors should not, but you never know. If for whatever
reason you get a run time error when you try to
start Public Address and cannot get it to start.
Try deleting the PA.CFG file. Chances are, this
file got corrupted some way. You will need to go
back to the configuration screen and reenter
everything, but at least it will get you going
again.
If you should have problems. Try to make the program do it
again, just to make sure you did everything ok. If you can
duplicate it, write everything down what you did to make it
happen and also what happened. I will also need to know what
kind of system you have including the DOS version. Just type VER
at the DOS prompt to find out. I will also want the kind of
printer your trying to print with if it's a printing problem.
Also if you can print out a copy of your AUTOEXEC.BAT and
CONFIG.SYS files and send them to me it would help. The more
information you give me the better the chance I have of figuring
it out.
For you that are interested. Public Address was written entirely
using COBOL with the exception of one file (TESTPRN.COM) which
was written in assembly. It's a small utility to check and see
if the printer is on and ready.
24
INDEX
Address . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10, 16
ADDRESS EDITOR . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11, 16, 17
ADDRESS FILE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
ASCII . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16, 22
ASCII.TXT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Birthday . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6, 7, 10, 12
Birthday Month . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7, 10, 12
Business . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7, 10, 12, 14, 16
City . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7, 10, 12, 14, 16
COMmunication port . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Configuration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9, 11, 14, 18
Country . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7, 10, 12, 15, 16
Custom programming . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Data Base . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Delete . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11, 16, 17
Dial . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2, 11, 13, 19
DISPLAY SCREEN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Dot-matrix . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15, 18
Dynamic Menu's . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Edit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11, 16, 17
Envelope . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11, 13-15, 21, 22
EXIT TO DOS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Faster Searching . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Fax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10, 16
First name . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10, 14, 16
Fonts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14, 19
Fonts to use . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
Group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6, 7, 10-12, 14, 17
Label . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2, 11, 13-16, 22
Label sizes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Landscape . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
Laser . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14, 18
Last name . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10, 12, 14, 16, 18
LH50.WPM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9, 15
LH51.WPM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9, 15
MAIL2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13, 15
MAIL50.WPM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9, 15
MAIL51.WPM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9, 15
Memo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Merge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Merge fields . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
MERGE.WPM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9, 15
Password . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7, 10
Phone . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10, 11, 13, 14, 16, 18
Phone book . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6, 14, 20
PHONE BOOK SORT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
PHONE PORT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
PHONE TYPE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
Postscript Printers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
PRIMARY SORT FIELD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
PRINT MENU . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
25
Printer code . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
PRINTER PORT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
PRODUCT INFO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
Province . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
RECORDS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7, 14, 22
Return address . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15, 21
Run time Errors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
Search . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2, 10, 11, 13
SEARCH MENU . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Sequential Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
SETUP LABELS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
SHARE.EXE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Shareware . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1, 9
State . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10, 14
Title . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10, 16
TRADEMARKS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Undo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
WordPerfect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9, 15
Zip . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7, 10, 12, 16, 18
26