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README.MED
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1993-01-07
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Please take a moment to read this ENTIRE file. Filetool is not hard to run,
but you do need an overview of how to use it effectively.
SAMPLE SPREADSHEET USE
======================
Here's just one example of how file tool can be useful. Let's say you are
at work and you need to get a special report from your MIS or Computer
Department. As usual, you are going to have to wait, or worse yet, your
request is given LOW priority.
Darn, you say. All the information that I need is buried in one or more
standard reports that are available. If only there was a simple way that I
could EXTRACT the data that I need from those reports into my spreadsheet.
Then I could manipulate the data exactly the way I need it.
If your computer department can give you those standard reports in
ASCII file format. You have all the power you need at your fingertips with
FILETOOL!
If you are one of those POWER spreadsheet users you are probably thinking,
HEY, my spreadsheet program allows me to import an ASCII file, and I can even
PARSE the file. Have you ever tried it? Take a report with 10,000 lines and
try to import it into your spreadsheet. Try to remove the unwanted page
headers and blank lines. Try to separate out just the data that you need.
Every report line is written to a single cell!
With FILETOOL you simply place MARKERS AND SEPARATORS and presto, you get a
separate file of just the information that you want. When you import it into
your spreadsheet, each field is written to a separate cell. All header and
footer information as well as blank and unwanted lines are gone.
SAMPLE DATABASE USE
===================
Again, you must be able to get your computer reports in ASCII file form.
If you can . . . your in business. Just use FILETOOL to highlight the records
and fields that you want to import into your database. I use FILETOOL all the
time with a very popular database program. You will be amazed how easy it is
to set up a complete database with current data extracted from an up to date
report. Just import the file with the .PAR extension into your database.
SAMPLE WORD PROCESSOR USE
=========================
You want to mail a letter to your customers. Your computer company can give
you mailing labels, but you want to customize the mailing, so that the
customers name and other personalized information is inserted into the text of
the letter.
You have a standard report that has all the information that you need in it.
Ask your computer company to give you the report saved to an ASCII file and you
can use FILETOOL to extract the names and addresses as well as any other field
that you want in the text of your letter.
You then can use your word processor to import the comma separated ASCII file
with " delimiters into your word processor. Note: Word processors vary in the
way they read fields. One major word processor simply can not recognize an
ASCII file with "," as a field delimiter. The registered version of FILETOOL
allows you to replace the record separator with one that your particular word
processor will allow. Don't be alarmed. MOST word processors WILL ALLOW
records separators the way FILETOOL formats the data.
A STEP BY STEP EXAMPLE
======================
FILETOOL is easy to use. Print out this file and start the program by typing
FILETOOL at the DOS prompt. Now follow along and I will have you going in no
time!
STEP #1
A. Press the Alt key to activate the menu bar (or click
on a bar item with a mouse if you have one.)
B. Select FILE TOOLS with mouse or by pressing Enter.
C. Select PARSE ASCII REPORT FILE with mouse or by using
the down arrow key until you highlight the item and
then press Enter.
D. You will now see a Select Files box. At first this
box might seem complicated, but once you get used to
it you will see that it is no big deal. You can change
the directory or drive you are on by clicking the drive
letter under the DIR/DRIVES box. If you don't have a
mouse you can get there by pressing TAB until you are
in the box and then using the up arrow or down arrow to
navigate within the box.
Now . . . to select the file that we want to PARSE we
can either type in the full name (with extension) in
the file name box OR we can click or tab over the
FILES BOX and use the arrow keys or mouse to highlight
the name of the file. Note: If your directory has a
lot of files and you are using the tab and arrow keys to
navigate, USE THE RIGHT ARROW KEY to move new file names
into the viewing box.
Wow, that was a windy explanation. Moving along, we
need to load our sample file. Type TEST.RPT in the file
box OR highlight the file name. Now click on the box
that says OK or tab over to it and press Enter.
E. The file will load and you will see a strange looking
screen with some text scattered about. What you are
looking at is a grid. Notice the numbers on the top row
that are marked from 1 to 80. The second row has numbers
marked from 81 to 160. The third row has numbers marked
from 161 to 240.
The first line of your report file is now in the computers
memory. This is a report header and we do not need the
that information in our final file. So . . . press the F4
key and the line will go away. F4 instructs the computer to
delete the line AND ALL LINES LIKE IT from the final parsed
file.
Now you see the next line. That is a header line too, so
press F4 to delete it. Same for the third line, fourth line
and fifth line. You can delete up to 10 lines, but five will
do for our sample.
Let's pause for a second. As you get to know this program,
you will find out that it won't be necessary to delete lines
in most cases. When you get to the second step, which is to
set markers, the markers will exclude the header lines in
almost every case. But, for illustration sake, we used delete
here.
STEP #2
Now we will set our markers. Press the F3 key and a little
window will pop up. The first question in the window asks for
a location for the marker. Enter a 12 and press Enter. The
second question wants to know if the marker will be a specific
character, a number or a letter. Let's make it a number.
Either click on the number bracket or arrow over there and
press Enter. We skipped right past the third question which
asks for the character. Why? Because you answered Number.
If all is OK press Enter on the OK box or click it.
Presto. You will see a red block right on top of position 12
on the grid. Inside the block you will see a yellow "N"
(that means number). So what does this mean? When you start
parsing, the computer will look at position 12 in every line
in the report. If it finds a number at that position it will
allow the line to be parsed. If it doesn't find a number
there, the line will be rejected.
Press F3 again. Select position 25 and select Letter. Again
you will see a red block with a "L" in it over position number
25. Press F3 again. Select position 58 and choose character.
Now you will get to answer question #3. Place a "/" in the
box. This tells the computer that it must find a "/" at
position 58 for the line to be selected.
STEP #3
Almost done. Before we parse, we must tell the computer what
sections of each line we want to be our fields. Press F2.
A window appears. After start field position enter a 1. After
end field position enter a 12. Press OK. Little blinking
arrows appear above the grid at positions 1 and 12. This
means that for every line that is selected for use, we will
SNIP OUT positions 1 to 12 and call the contents FIELD #1.
Press F2, enter start position 25 and end position 50.
Press F2, enter start position 56 and end position 63.
Press F2, enter start position 78 and end position 88
Press F2, enter start position 104 and end position 127.
STEP #4
Now we are ready to parse the file. Press F5. Bingo!
the file is parsed. Now this is a little sample file. It
will work just as good on a HUGE report with hundreds or
even thousands of pages.
You can get imaginative. Let's say you want all last
names beginning with the letter S. Just place a character
marker and indicate "S" over the first position of the name
field and only last names beginning with "S" will be selected.
Experiment. You can't hurt anything. The parsed file is
written with the same base file name and an extension of
.PAR. For example, our sample file was named "TEST.RPT".
If you check out your disk drive you will find a new file
named "TEST.PAR". TEST.PAR is your parsed file. TEST.RPT
remains unchanged. Promise.
STEP #5
You wouldn't be doing any of this if you did not need to
extract information for use in your spreadsheet, database
or word processor.
To help you out I will give you one final example. Let's
say I want to load TEST.PAR into my well known spreadsheet
program. I simply select IMPORT from the menu. Then I
select ASCII, comma delimited. For the file name I enter
TEST.PAR. Done. Now I can do what I want with the data.
If you want to look at TEST.PAR, load it into your word processor,
text viewer or do the following at the DOS prompt:
Type TYPE TEST.PAR.
You will now see the parsed file. Neat.
FINALLY
=======
If you discover that this program has use, you should consider registering
and get the full program. The registered version gives you the full power
of FILETOOL. One feature that is very beneficial to regular users is
the ability to set up a standard template for a report. This means that you
only need to set up your markers and fields ONCE for a report. See the
section entitled "About MEDSoft" for the full program features.