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PDX2WP A Paradox to WordPefect Translation Utility Shareware Version 1.22 Copyright (c) 1990, 1991 S.L.S. Systems All Rights Reserved. TABLE OF CONTENTS License and Warranty Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 What Is PDX2WP? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 Installing PDX2WP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 How to Use the PDX2WP Utility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Running the PDX2WP Utility From the DOS Command Line . . 4 Running the PDX2WP Utility From a Paradox PAL Script . . 5 Running the PDX2WP Utility From Interactive Paradox . . . 7 Using PDX2WP with Sidekick 2.0 . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 How to Use the WP2PDX Utility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 Running the WP2PDX Utility From the DOS Command Line . . 9 Limitations of PDX2WP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 Suggestions and Hints . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 Final Comments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 Invoice/Registration Form . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 PDX2WP Page i License and Warranty Information PDX2WP is not in the public domain. This is the limited shareware version of the full commercial product. It is fully protected by copyright law. You are granted without charge a license which permits (a) use of the program for a reasonable period for evaluation and testing; (b) making copies for distribution to others without charge, provided the program and the accompanying documentation and other files are distributed together and without modification; (c) posting the program, together with the accompanying documentation and other files, on electronic bulletin board systems. How long is a reasonable period? The idea of shareware is that you should be able to try a program before deciding to buy it. Once you have tried PDX2WP and found that it is useful to you you should begin to realize its benefits. A period of two weeks after first use should be sufficient to determine the program's usefulness. Any time after the two weeks is unreasonable. Use after the reasonable evaluation and testing period requires payment of a license fee. For a single copy (plus necessary archival copies), to be used on only one computer at a time, the fee is $30.00. For your convenience, an invoice form is included at the end of this documentation. For large quantities, discounts and site licenses are available. Write for information. PDX2WP is licensed, and the documentation and other included files are provided "AS IS," without any warranty as to perfor- mance, accuracy, or freedom from error, or as to any results generated through use of such material, including, without limitation, any implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. Sidekick is a registered trademark of Borland International Paradox is a trademark of Borland International WordPerfect is a registered trademark of WordPerfect Corporation S.L.S. Systems 13 Shirley Ave. Kingston, Massachusetts 02364 617-585-3620 PDX2WP Page 1 What Is PDX2WP? PDX2WP is actually a pair of utilities, PDX2WP and WP2PDX, along with sample Paradox scripts, which will perform translation of Paradox tables into WordPerfect documents or WordPerfect secondary merge documents into Paradox tables. PDX2WP will also work with Address Book files created by Borland's Sidekick 2.0, which are stored in Paradox tables. The documents created by PDX2WP are meant for use with WordPerfect version 5.0 or later, while the documents converted by WP2PDX must already exist as WordPerfect version 5.0 or later secondary merge documents. It is important to note that neither PDX2WP nor WP2PDX require the presence of either Paradox or WordPerfect. All that is required to run PDX2WP is an existing Paradox table which will be translated, while WP2PDX only requires an existing WordPerfect secondary merge document. It must also be noted that neither PDX2WP nor WP2PDX affect or alter the original Paradox table or WordPerfect document in any manner. The WordPerfect document which is created by PDX2WP may be any of four formats: -- A WordPerfect table, with rows and columns, similar in appearance to a spreadsheet. In this format, each Paradox record becomes a row in the WordPerfect table, with each column representing a field of the record (up to the WordPerfect limit of 32 columns). The maximum number of rows in a WordPerfect table is 32,765. WordPerfect tables may be used only with versions 5.1 or later of WordPerfect. -- WordPerfect parallel columns, where blocks of text are separated into columns which are printed side-by-side. With PDX2WP each field of the Paradox record is entered into a column, with as many columns as there are fields in the Paradox table (up to the WordPerfect limit of 24 columns). -- WordPerfect secondary merge file with WordPerfect Version 5.0 merge codes (^R and ^E), where a secondary merge record is created for each record in the Paradox table. A merge field is created for each field in the Paradox record. -- WordPerfect secondary merge file with WordPerfect Version 5.1 merge codes ({END FIELD} and {END RECORD}) and Field Names, where a secondary merge record is created for each PDX2WP Page 2 record in the Paradox table. A merge field is created for each field in the Paradox record. The WordPerfect document to be converted by WP2PDX must be a secondary merge document, created by WordPerfect version 5.0 or later. It must be a document set up with individual records, separated by WordPerfect "end of record" merge codes (either ^E or {END RECORD}). Each record must be broken into fields, each separated by WordPerfect "end of field" codes (either ^R or {END FIELD}). This version of PDX2WP and WP2PDX are command-line oriented programs. This means that there are no menus, windows, data entry forms, or other user interface. All options to the programs are specified as parameters to the programs when run from the DOS command line. Installing PDX2WP As mentioned earlier, PDX2WP is actually two utilities. Each of these utilities is a self-contained executable program file, PDX2WP.EXE and WP2PDX.EXE. Simply insert the distribution disk into your floppy disk drive and copy these two programs from the distribution disk to a directory which is included in your DOS path. For example, if you have a directory named \UTILITY in which you keep all utilities, copy the two program files into the \UTILITY directory using the DOS "copy" command, as follows: copy a:*.exe c:\utility Included with the two executable programs are the following files: PDX2WP.DOC This documentation file. PDX2WP.SC A Paradox script which can be used to execute PDX2WP from within interactive Paradox. INIT.SC A Paradox startup script which, when placed in the Paradox startup directory (i.e., \PARADOX3) will assign the PDX2WP.SC script to the Shift-F5 key. This file should be modified to direct Paradox to the directory to which PDX2WP.SC was copied. CONTACTS.DB A sample Paradox table for use as an example for PDX2WP. MAILLIST.DOC A sample WordPerfect secondary merge document for use as PDX2WP Page 3 an example for WP2PDX. Copy the above files to appropriate directories, and both PDX2WP and WP2PDX will be ready to run, from either the DOS command line or from within Paradox. How to Use the PDX2WP Utility PDX2WP may be run from either the DOS command line or from within a Paradox PAL script. By creating a short PAL script and attaching the script to a key combination in Paradox using the SETKEY command, the program may also be run from interactive Paradox. (Although WordPerfect provides the capability to run a DOS command, there is not enough memory available to run PDX2WP while WordPerfect is running.) Running the PDX2WP Utility From the DOS Command Line When running PDX2WP from the DOS command line, you must specify the name of the WordPerfect document you wish to create, the name of the Paradox table you wish to translate, and a "switch" specifying which type of WordPerfect document you wish to create. The syntax for PDX2WP is: PDX2WP document-name table-name /type "Document-name" is the name of the WordPerfect document you wish to create. You may include a drive specifier, a full path name, and a file name. The file name follows standard DOS naming conventions: a name of up to 8 characters, fol- lowed by an optional period and an extension of up to 3 characters. The following are all valid names for a WordPerfect document: MY-FILE2 PDX-TABL2.DOC B:NAMES C:\WP\DOCUMENT\MAILLIST.WP "Table-name" is the name of the Paradox table which will be translated. This name may be the name of any valid Paradox table. As with the document-name, you may include a drive specifier and a full path name. An extension of "DB" is PDX2WP Page 4 assumed. Therefore, do not include an extension. If an extension is included, an error message will be displayed. "Type" represents the type of translation you wish to perform, and is always preceded by a "/". Valid types and there meaning are: T Create a WordPerfect Table (Version 5.1 only) C Create parallel columns (Version 5.0 or later) M Create a secondary merge file (Version 5.0 merge codes ^R and ^E) MF Create a secondary merge file (Version 5.1 merge codes {END FIELD} and {END RECORD}, with {FIELD NAMES}) The following are examples of valid command-line entries for the PDX2WP utility: PDX2WP CONTACTS.WP CONTACTS /M PDX2WP \ACCOUNT.TBL \PARADOX\FILES\ACCOUNT /T PDX2WP A:PARTS PARTLIST /C PDX2WP ADDRBOOK \SK\ADDRESS\ADDRESS /MF After typing the appropriate command-line entry and pressing ENTER, several lines of copyright information are displayed. After the copyright lines is a line which displays the progress of the conversion process, showing the record number of each Paradox record as it is translated. Upon completion, a message indicating the total number of records translated is displayed. This number indicates the number of rows in the WordPerfect table or column structure, or the number of merge records created in a secondary merge file. Running the PDX2WP Utility From a Paradox PAL Script By using the PDX2WP utility within a PAL script, the translation of a Paradox table can be made to execute automatically, without user intervention. PDX2WP can be run within a PAL script using the PAL command "RUN BIG" followed by the command-line entry for PDX2WP described in the previous section. A common application of this use would be to translate a Paradox ANSWER table which is created as a result of a query. This allows for the translation of a selected subset of PDX2WP Page 5 records from a Paradox table. Following is an excerpt of a simple PAL script performing such a query. The line numbers are shown for information only, and are not part of the script 1 query 2 3 contacts |Name |Address |City | 4 |check |check |check | 5 | | | | 6 | | | | 7 8 9 contacts |State |Zip Code | 10 |check, MA |check | 11 | | | 12 | | | 13 14 endquery 15 16 Do_It! 17 18 If Istable("Answer") then 19 run big "pdx2wp contacts.wp answer /mf" 20 endif In this example, the first portion of PAL code, from line 1 to line 14, is a script which was generated using the Paradox QuerySave command. The script queries the Paradox table "Contacts," requesting the fields Name, Address, City, State, and Zip Code, where State is equal to "MA." By editing the script with the Paradox Script/Edit command and adding lines 15 through 20, the script can be made to perform both the query and the PDX2WP translation of the resulting Answer file. The "Do_It!" command on line 16 causes Paradox to perform the query specified on lines 1 through 14. If there are any records which satisfy the criteria in the query command, the Answer table will be created with those selected records and will become the current table. Otherwise, no Answer table will be created and the current table will still be the Contacts table. Line 18 checks to see if the current table is the Answer table. If so, then line 19 is executed, which actually runs PDX2WP as if it were entered at the DOS command line. When PDX2WP completes the translation, control will return to the PAL script, and any further commands will be executed. PDX2WP Page 6 Running the PDX2WP Utility From Interactive Paradox There are two methods of running PDX2WP from the interactive Paradox environment. It may be run as a "mini-script" using the same statement shown on line 20 of the above script, or it can be attached to a Paradox "hot-key" with the SETKEY command. To execute PDX2WP as a mini-script, access the PAL menu by pressing Alt-F10. Choose the MiniScript option from the menu. A message prompting for a command will be displayed. Type in the command using the RUN BIG command, as in the example on line 20 of the script above. Be sure to substi- tute the appropriate document-name, table-name and transla- tion type in the command, then press Enter to execute PDX2WP. The second method for running PDX2WP from the interactive Paradox environment is by assigning the PDX2WP command to a key combination. This is done by using the Paradox SETKEY command in a special PAL script named "Init." The Init script resides in the default data directory for Paradox, and includes any number of functions to be performed automatically when Paradox is first loaded. By including a SETKEY command for PDX2WP in the Init script, the PDX2WP utility may be executed simply by performing the keystroke to which the program was assigned. The following line assigns the PDX2WP command to the Shift-F5 key combination: setkey "F15" run big "pdx2wp " + table() + " " + table() + " /t" This example again uses the RUN BIG command, as well as the TABLE() function, which returns the name of the current Paradox table, to create a WordPerfect file with the same name as the Paradox table. Although this is a simple example, it does not allow the flexibility of choosing which type of translation to perform once Paradox is running. By using a combination of the SETKEY command in the Init script and a separate script which performs the translation, the choice can be made at the time the key combination is pressed. Rather than having the assigned key combination do the actual translation, a separate script may be played by the assigned key combina- tion. The SETKEY statement in the Init script would then look more like the following: setkey "F15" play "\\paradox3\\pdx2wp" PDX2WP Page 7 The section of the line in quotes after the PLAY command is the directory and file name of the script to be played. (When specifying a path or directory in a script, the subdirectory names must be separated by 2 backwards slashes.) A complete sample PDX2WP script is included with this package, and may be used as is or as an example which may be expanded upon. The sample script first verifies that a table image is on the Paradox workspace. If there is no image on the workspace, a message is displayed and processing stops, returning to the previous state. If there is an image on the workspace, a Paradox menu is displayed. The menu allows the selection of the translation type which PDX2WP will perform. Once an option is chosen, the appropriate translation is per- formed. The WordPerfect document is given a file name which is the same as the Paradox table name, and an extension of .COL, .MRG, or .TBL for a parallel columns document, secondary merge document, or WordPerfect table, respectively. By copying the sample script to your Paradox directory and adding the SETKEY statement to the existing Init script (or creating an Init script which includes the SETKEY statement), the PDX2WP translation utility will be continuously available from within the interactive Paradox environment. Using PDX2WP with Sidekick 2.0 Beginning with Sidekick Version 2.0 from Borland, Sidekick Address Book files are stored in Paradox tables. As such, they may be accessed and converted by PDX2WP the same as any other Paradox table. By default, Sidekick stores records for the address books in the Paradox table "ADDRESS." This table is in the ADDRESS subdirectory of the Sidekick directory. For example, if Sidekick was installed in C:\SK, the address books would be in the C:\SK\ADDRESS directory. The list of fields and their sizes (in characters) for Address Book files is as follows: FIELD NAME SIZE Last Name 20 First Name 20 Middle Name 20 Code 10 Title 35 Company 50 Street 50 City 20 PDX2WP Page 8 State 15 Zip 10 Home Phone 30 Business Phone 30 Alternate Phone 30 Notes 255 How to Use the WP2PDX Utility WP2PDX may also be run from the DOS command line or from Paradox, either within the interactive environment or from a PAL script. While the operation of WP2PDX from the DOS command line is very similar to that of PDX2WP, the use of WP2PDX from within Paradox is somewhat different. Again, as with PDX2WP, there generally is not enough memory available to run WP2PDX from WordPerfect's "Go To Dos" or "Dos Command" options. Running the WP2PDX Utility From the DOS Command Line When running WP2PDX from the DOS command line, you must specify the name of the WordPerfect secondary merge document you wish to convert and the name of the Paradox table you wish to create. Since there is only one type of Paradox table, there are no additional parameters to the WP2PDX utility. The syntax for WP2PDX is: WP2PDX document-name table-name "Document-name" is the name of the WordPerfect document you wish to convert. You may include a drive specifier, a full path name, and a file name. The file name follows standard DOS naming conventions: a name of up to 8 characters, fol- lowed by an optional period and an extension of up to 3 characters. The following are all valid names for a WordPerfect document: MY-FILE PDX-TABL.DOC B:NAMES C:\WP\DOCUMENT\MAILLIST.WP "Table-name" is the name of the Paradox table which will be created. This name may be any valid Paradox table name. As with the document-name, you may include a drive specifier and a full path name. An extension of "DB" is assumed. PDX2WP Page 9 Therefore, do not include an extension. If an extension is included, an error message will be displayed. The following are examples of valid command-line entries for the WP2PDX utility: WP2PDX CONTACTS.WP CONTACTS WP2PDX \ACCOUNTS.MRG \PARADOX\FILES\ACCOUNTS WP2PDX A:MERGE.NMS NAMES WP2PDX PARTLIST C:\PARADOX\INVENTORY\PARTS After typing the appropriate command-line entry and pressing ENTER, several lines of copyright information are displayed. WP2PDX then performs the first of three steps: veryifying that the specified document is a WordPerfect secondary merge document. This is done by scanning the document for either "end of field" or "end of record" merge codes. If no such codes are found, an error message is displayed and the WP2PDX program terminates. If the appropriate merge codes are found in the specified merge document, the next step in the conversion process is performed. In this step, the document is analyzed to determine the structure of the individual records in the merge document. The structure specifies how many fields are in each record, how long each field is (up to the Paradox maximum of 255 characters), and what type each field is. While this analysis is being performed, the following message is displayed: Analyzing WordPerfect document. Please wait followed by a rotating dash or slash character. The rotating character is displayed as a visual confirmation that the program is actually working. After the analysis is complete, the actual conversion step begins. During the conversion, a line is displayed which shows the progress of the conversion, showing the record number of each Paradox record as it is being created. Upon completion, a message indicating the total number of records translated is displayed. PDX2WP Page 10 Limitations of PDX2WP This version of PDX2WP is a shareware product, and has several limitations. Though it is a totally functional and useful program, there are several limitations and default settings which can not be overridden. Most of these will be addressed in forthcoming versions of the product. -- Paradox date fields are translated to the standard MM/DD/YY format. Future versions will provide the choice between this format and several others. -- When translating to a WordPerfect table, number fields are decimal aligned in the cell, with 2 decimal places. Future versions will allow selection of numeric formats, including commas, decimal places, and currency notations. -- All fields in the Paradox table are translated and placed into separate columns or fields, and in the same order as they appear in the Paradox table structure. Future versions will allow the selection of specific fields in a user-defined order. It will also allow the joining of two or more fields together, separated by a carriage re- turn, a space, or other special characters or codes. -- When translating to a WordPerfect table, the Paradox field names are entered into the first row of the WordPerfect table to serve as headers for the table structure. This will be an option in future versions. -- When translating to a parallel columns format, only the first 24 fields from the Paradox table are converted. This is a limitation in the number of columns that WordPerfect allows, rather than a limitation of PDX2WP. -- When translating to a WordPerfect table, only the first 32 fields and the first 32,765 records are translated. Again, this is a limitation in the number of columns and rows that WordPerfect allows, not a limitation of PDX2WP. -- The limit to the number of fields when translating to a WordPerfect secondary merge document is 255, which is the maximum fields allowed in a Paradox table. -- Since PDX2WP has no knowledge of printer definitions used in a particular installation of WordPerfect, there is no printer information included in the created document files. This restricts these documents from being printed from the List Files mode of WordPerfect. They must first PDX2WP Page 11 be retrieved into WordPerfect, so they may be formatted for the default printer then printed. -- When translating to either parallel columns or a Word- Perfect table, the document is created with a portrait page layout with 1" left and right margins. The columns are all created the same size, based on the page layout and margin size. A future version will allow selection of portrait or landscape mode, as well as user-definable left, right, top, and bottom margins. -- Password protected tables are not supported by this version of PDX2WP. A future version will provide facilities for accessing protected tables. -- Access to Paradox tables on a local area network is not supported by this version of PDX2WP. Again, network support will be available in a future version of PDX2WP. Suggestions and Hints Listed below are some helpful ideas and suggestions for getting the most from PDX2WP. -- If you are already using Paradox, you can translate only the fields you need by using the query-by-example capabilities of Paradox. When querying, use the F6 key to check only those fields which you wish to be trans- lated into WordPerfect. The resulting Answer table will only include the fields that have been checked with the F6 key. Then use PDX2WP to translate the Answer table. -- When creating a WordPerfect table, all columns are set to equal widths. Once the document has been created, the column widths may be easily changed using table edit mode (Alt-F7). All aspects of the table may be changed in this manner. -- Similarly, when creating parallel columns, all columns are set to equal widths. Column widths and margins may be set using the Column Definition command (Alt-F7). This is a bit more cumbersome than changing column widths in a table. -- It may be useful to change the orientation of the page from portrait mode to landscape mode by selecting a different paper size using the Page Format command. This PDX2WP Page 12 will allow the use of wider columns in both tables and parallel columns. -- When creating a WordPerfect table, be aware that there are considerably more codes required to create a table than to create parallel columns. Your final document may be as much as 7 to 10 times larger than the equivalent Paradox table translated to parallel columns. -- When creating a WordPerfect secondary merge document, it may be preferable to use the /MF option, which will not only use the {END FIELD} and {END RECORD} codes available in WordPerfect Version 5.1, but will also create the {FIELD NAMES} section at the beginning of the merge document. This allows for much easier selection of fields in a primary merge document. You need only remember the field names, not the field numbers. -- When converting a Paradox table with more than 100 fields to a WordPerfect secondary merge document with the /MF option, all field names will be inserted into the list of field names in the document. However, WordPerfect only keeps track of the first 100 field names in a secondary merge document. Therefore, in order to place fields beyond the 100th field into a primary document, the fields must be referenced by the field number, not the field name. Final Comments As mentioned earlier, this version of PDX2WP is a shareware product. It is not in the public domain, nor is it "Freeware." As such, you are expected to register your copy of PDX2WP by filling out the Invoice/Registration Form which appears at the end of this document. As a registered user, you will be made aware of all future versions of PDX2WP, commercial as well as shareware. If you decide to upgrade to the commercial version when it becomes available, your registration fee will be credited toward the price of the commercial version. You will also be made aware of other utilities and programs from S. L. S. Systems as they become available. Your comments and suggestions regarding PDX2WP are welcome. You have the opportunity to impact the future of this program, as well as provide input for the development of other useful utilities and programs. PDX2WP Page 13 S. L. S. Systems may be reached through Electronic Mail on Compuserve (account number 76104,2074) or by mail at the address on the Invoice/Registration Form. PDX2WP Page 14 Invoice/Registration Form Date: ____________ S. L. S. System 13 Shirley Avenue Kingston, MA 02364 SOLD TO: Name: ____________________________________ Company: _________________________________ Address: _________________________________ _________________________________ Phone: _________________ FAX: ___________________ What size disks do you use? ___ 5-1/4" ___ 3-1/2" Where did you hear about PDX2WP? __________________________________ ┌───────────────────────────────────────────────┬─────────────────┐ │ Description │ Price │ ├───────────────────────────────────────────────┼─────────────────┤ │ License for PDX2WP v. 1.22 │ $ 30.00 │ │ │ │ │ ____ additional licenses @ $30.00 │ _________ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ └───────────────────────────────────────────────┼─────────────────┤ │ │ Total Amount Enclosed │ $ _________ │ └─────────────────┘ Please make checks payable to: S. L. S. Systems 13 Shirley Avenue Kingston, MA 02364