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Text File | 1991-04-28 | 21KB | 539 lines

PCAB V3.00(c) P J Tewkesbury* Feb 17th 1991 This is a SHAREWARE Program. * Thanks to S Harrison and A Ibrahim for there assistance with the checking and debugging of this program. Shareware. This application package, which includes files contained in the PCAB.ZIP file are copyright of P J Tewkesbury. However, you may use the software for upto 30 days. After which time if you decide to continue to use the package, you should register with the author. Otherwise you should erase the package from all your discs. This package may be copied and distributed freely, so long as the files are not changed in any way, by any means. Restrictions. This package, as it stands is a fully working program, but it has one limitation, That is it will only allow you to store a maximum of 30 records in any one database. There is also a popup reminder which will appear from time to time to remind you that that copy is un-registered. If you would like the full package, which can handle upto 1000 records per database, you will have to register with the author. Registering. To register, send £20 to the author. In return, you will receive a fill working copy of PCAB V3.00 which can cope with 1000 records per database. You will also receive a typeset manual for PCAB. You should find an file called ORDER.TXT, print this file and then fill it in and return to the address on the order form. ------------------------------------------------------------- 1. Program Requirements. This program requires the following to operate correctly. A. IBM PC or 100% compatible computer. B. MSDOS 3.2 or latter. C. Printer Optional. D. Mouse Optional. E. 512K Memory ( For 1000 record capcaity.) 2. Introduction. What is PCAB? Well PCAB is a fast, and easy to use data base for keeping names, addresses, telephone numbers, birthdays, & wedding anniversary dates. PCAB is quick to load up, can be used to print an envelope label, or to just check a telephone number. But you can also export a file of names and addresses in one of 3 different formats for your word processor to use as input for a mail merge. Pcab is easy use, and the information that you have entered can be displayed in one of 4 different formats. The formats are:- (i) Name & Telephone number, (ii) Name & Birth/wedding dates, (iii) Address Labels, & (iv) Total information. These formats have been included so that you can find that date or telephone number as easily as possible. 3. Program Features. PCAB supports the following features:- A. 4 different display formats. B. Fully menu driven, and hot keys. C. Two field sort routine. D. Search routine. E. Export routine in either ASCII C, ASCII L, or PCFILE+ 3.0 formats. F. Output records to file or printer. G. PCFILE+ 3.0 Compatible output data files. H. REMINDER. A program to inform you 2 weeks in advance of peoples birthdays \ wedding anniversaries, using information previously stored in the database. I. Full Online Help. J. MS compatible mouse supported. K. All text screens supported. (Color or Mono.) 4. Display Formats PCAB can display the above information in 1 of 4 different ways. They are:- A. Name & Telephone Number. B. Name & Dates. (Birthday & Wedding Anniversary dates.) C. Name & Address. (For printing onto envelopes.) D. Total Information. (All information is displayed.) 5. General Use. Once PCAB has been loaded and run, PCAB will display a title screen and wait for the return key to be pressed. After that, the screen will clear, and PCAB will load the database into memory. You will see that the top line of the screen is a status line containing the number of records in the database, the number of tagged records, ( See section 5.1 ) the amount of free memory, and the time. In the main window on the screen you can see the information held in the data base, and the top record will be highlighted. To move the highlight bar, you can use the up\down arrow keys, Home\End or the PGUP\PGDN keys. The left\right arrow keys will allow you to change the display format. 5.1 Help. Help can be obtained at all times by pressing the F1 key, and a help window will appear. Onec you have read the help, press the ESC key to remove the help window. 5.2 Tagging/Untagging Records. For some operations like Exporting, Printing, or Deleting, you may require PCAB to perform the operation on only some of the records. Therefore, PCAB will allow you to TAG any or all of the records that are held in the database. To tag a record you can use :- T,t or F7. To untag a record, you can use :- U, u, of F8. Tagged records are marked by a star '*' on the top left hand corner of the record. To tag or untag all the records in the database you can use the ALT T, or ALT U respectively. 5.3 Menus. Once a menu has been displayed, you can use the arrow keys to move the highlight bar up and down. Return will select an option, and ESC will exit you from the current menu to the previous one. 5.4 Dates. PCAB will, at some point, ask you to enter a date. Dates can be entered in the form of DD/MM/YY, where DD = Day; MM = Month; YY = Year. Eg:- 12 March 1967 would be entered as:- 12/03/67 PCAB also allows you to miss the year if it is unknown. 6. Main Menu. (F2) From the main menu you can select all of the following operations. To display the main menu use the F2 key. 6.1 Edit Menu. (F9, ALT E) From this menu, you can select any of the following options:- A) Add. (F3, ALT A) ADD will allow you to add a new record after the current record. A window with a blank record will be displayed. You can then type in the required information. Use the arrow keys to move from field to field, F10 to store the information, and ESC to abort the option. You can also use ALT D to erase the current field, or ALT E to erase the current record. B) Modify. (F4, ALT M) Modify will allow you to modify the information in any record. A window will be displayed with the current record information, and you will be able to modify the information in the same way as with the ADD record option. C) Delete. (F5, ALT D) If ALT D is pressed, then the current record that is highlighted will be deleted from the database. If F5 is used, then a menu will appear. From this meun you can select to delete All, the Tagged, or the current record(s). If you delete all the records in a database, or you create a new database by entering a new database name when you load PCAB, (See section 7. Command line options.) PCAB will not allow you to use the DELETE, TAG, UNTAG, PRINT, SORT, SEARCH, or EXPORT functions until you have entered at least one record. D) Tag. (F7, T, t) See section 5.1 above for more information. E) Untag. (F8, U, u) See section 5.1 above for more information. 6.2 Print Menu. (F6) From the Print Menu, you can select to print All, the Tagged, or the current record(s). You can use ALT P to print the currently highlighted record to the printer. Once you have selected which records to print, you will be asked if you wish to create a Print File, or to print the records directly to the printer. If you select to create a print file, then you will be asked to enter a filename of the print file. The file will then be created, and filled with the records selected. 6.3Sort Menu. (ALT O) Sorting can be made on the name, reference code, birthday, or wedding anniversary fields. The sort option will also allow you to sort in acceding or descending order for each sort field. To sort the records, first select the FIELD 1 option from the SORT menu, and then you can select the field to sort by, and weather to sort in acceding or descending order. The RESET option of the FIELD 1 menu will set the sort field to NAME, and the sort order to acceding. You can do the same with FIELD 2 option of the SORT menu, but you also have a NONE sort field in case you only wish to sort by one field. The RESET option of the FIELD 2 option will set the sort field to NONE, and the sort order to ASCENDING. Once this is done, you can select SORT DATABASE from the SORT menu. PCAB will then sort the database. Once you exit the menu, the screen will be updated. The window will show the top record. 6.4 Search Menu. (ALT S) The search option will allow you to search the database, and tag any records which match the search pattern. To search the database, first pull down the SEARCH menu. Then you can select the field to search by. This is done by selecting the SEARCH FIELD option, then select the search field option. Next you have to select the SEARCH STRING from the SEARCH menu. You will be asked to input either a string, a number of a pair of dates depending on which field you have selected. Once you have input the search string, you can then select DO SEARCH from the SEARCH menu. PCAB will then perform the search, and tag all the matching records. Once you exit from the search menu, the screen will be updated. NB. If you selected to search either the birthdate/wedding anniversary fields, then you can enter the following:- 1. If you only enter the top date in full (DD/MM/YY), then the search routine will search for that date only. 2. If you only enter the top date (DD/MM), then the search routine will search, and tag all record with the DD/MM matching the inputed date. 3. If you enter both dates in full (DD/MM/YY), then the search routine will search, and tag all records which have a date in the range from the top date to the bottom date. 4. If you enter both dates (DD/MM), then the search routine will search and tag all records which have the DD/MM in the range of the dates entered. 6.5 Export Menu. (ALT X) The Export menu will allow you to export all or only the tagged record to a file in one of three formats. This new file can then be used a the input to another application package. EG Word Processor. PCTYPE II for a mail merge. To export data from PCAB, first select the EXPORT menu, then you can select to DATA option. You can then select to export either ALL of the records, or only the TAGGED records. Next you can select the FILE FORMAT option from the EXPORT menu. You can then decide on which file format to save the information as. You can select ASCII C, ASCII L, or PCFILE+3.0. (Format details can be found latter.) Once this has been selected, select the EXPORT DATA option from the EXPORT menu. You will be asked for a filename, and once you have entered the filename, the information will be saved to the file. 6.6 Backup Database. (ALT B) This option allow you to save the database to disc. If you do not backup the database, you will lose all the changes that you have made to the database. 6.7 Configuration Page. (ALT C) This option will allow you to change upto 4 parameters that PCAB uses. Once this option is selected, a window will be displayed. PCAB will allow you change any of the 4 fields. They are:- Database Path, Database Name, Color/Mono screen, and the default display format. You can use the arrow keys to change the current field, F10 will store the data in the config file. ESC will abort the changes made. Once the changes have been made, and saved, then the new parameters will be used. That is, if you change the database name, and backup the database, it will be saved using the new name. That is you can create a new database under a new name, and path. The old database can still be loaded by using the command line parameters. 6.8 Quit. (F10, ALT Q) This option allows you to exit from PCAB back to your command shell ( MSDOS ), but it will also ask you if you which to backup the database to disc. IF YOU DO NOT BACKUP THE DATABASE, YOU WILL LOSE ALL CHANGES MADE TO THE DATABASE. 7. Operational Keys In Table 2 you can see a list of all the keys that can be used to access the many functions of PCAB v3.00 F2 : Main menu. F3, ALT A : Add record. F4, ALT M : Modify current record. F5, ALT D : Delete current record. F6 : Print Menu F7, t, T : Tag current record. F8, u, U : Untag current record. F9, ALT E : Edit menu. F10, ALT Q : Quit program. Arrows Up : Up Arrow Down : Down Arrow Left : Left Arrow Right : Right Home : Top of file. End : End of file. PGUP : Page up. PGDN : Page down. ALT C : Configuration. ALT B : Backup data file. ALT O : Sort menu. ALT P : Print Current Record. ALT S : Search menu. ALT T : Tag all records. ALT U : Untag all records. ALT X : Export menu. Table 1. Command Keys for PCAB V3.00 8. Command line options. PCAB has 4 command line parameters that can be used when the program is run. 8.1 /P:[pathname] : Path name for the database. Defines a new path name for the database. The length of the path can be a maximum of 40 characters long, and all the characters must be valid of a directory path. 8.2 /N:[name] : Database name. Defines a new database name. The name can be a maximum of 8 characters long, and it must use valid characters for a filename. Using these above command line parameters, it is possible to load up one of a number of databases held on disc. 8.3 /M : Mono screen - Selects mono screen colors. 8.4 /C : Color screen - Selects color screen colors. 9. REMINDER. 9.1 Introduction. This program will, when run, check the dates in every record, and if any of the dates are in the next 2 weeks, then a message is displayed on the screen. 9.2 Installation. This program should be run every time the computer is booted. If you wish this program to be run, then just add the following line to your AUTOEXEC.BAT file:- [drive]:\PCAB\REMINDER /P:????? /N:???? You must remember to include the drive letter in the command line above where PCAB has been installed. You must also include the path name of where the database can be found for the /P option, and the database name for the /N option. If the last two options are omitted then the REMINDER program will not be able to find the database files, and it will return to MSDOS. 9.3 Command Line Options. Also supported by REMINDER.EXE are 2 command line options which will specify the Name and Path of the database. The parameters are the same as seen in Section 8. To include the command line parameters, simply add the options to the new command line above which is placed in the AUTOEXEC.BAT file. Example :- C:\PCAB\REMINDER /P:C:\PCAB\DB /N:MYFILE 9.4 Use. Once you have updated your AUTOEXEC.BAT file, the reminder program will automatically run, and check you database. If there are any birthdays/wedding anniversary in the next 2 weeks, a message will be displayed. 10. PCAB Files. In Table 3 there is a list of all the files that PCAB uses, and what they are used for. PCAB.EXE : Main PCAB execution file. PCAB.DOC : This manual. KEYCARD.TXT : List of Hot Keys for all options. PCAB.CFG : Configuration file. REMINDER.EXE : Main REMINDER execution file. PCAB.DTA : Main Data File. PCAB.INX : Main Index File. PCAB.HDR : Main Header File. Table 2 : PCAB Files. 11. Export File Formats. As stated in Section 5.9 the Export option of PCAB can generate 3 different types of output file. Here, the file formats are explained. 11.1 ASCII C Each record will take one line, and each field is enclosed by quotes, and each field is separated by a comma. 11.2 ASCII L Each field is enclosed by quotes, and each record takes one line, and each record is separated by one or more blank lines. 11.3 PC FILE+3.0 PCAB uses PCFILE formats to save the database. This means that if you have PCFILE+ V3.0, then you can use the PCAB database on PCFILE+ V3.0 PCFILE+ 3.0 has 3 files for each database, and they are 11.3.1 DTA Files. These files hold all the information for the database. Each record is of a fixed length (The sum of all the fields), and the record end is marked by a carriage return. (Hex 0D). Each field is of a fixed length, and if needed, the field is padded to the right with spaces. If the first character of the record is a '/' character, then that record has been deleted, and if the first character is a '\' then this marks the end of the database. When PCFILE+ adds a new record, PCFILE+ first replaces the records which have been deleted, and if there are no deleted records, then PCFILE+ adds the records to the end of the file. 11.3.2 INX Files. This file contains the information about the order of the file. IE Which record is 1st, 2nd, 3rd etc. (This also includes deleted records.) Each index record is made up of the first 2 characters of each field, followed by a 2 byte binary pointer to the relative record number of the record in the DTA file. 11.3.3 HDR Files. The HDR files contains information only required by PCFILE+ V3.0. If you are using PCFILE+ see the documentation files for more information on the HDR file format. 12. Questions. If you have any questions, or suggestions for PCAB, please send then to the author, with a SAE for your reply. NB. If there is no SAE, there will be no reply. Author:- Mr P J Tewkesbury, 26 Garthorp Road, Northern Moor, Manchester, M23 OAS, England.