PC-SIG: World of Education

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Text File | 1988-04-05 | 22KB | 575 lines

******************************************************************** * * * MULTI MERGE * * A MAIL MERGE UTILITY * * * * VERSION 1.0 COPYRIGHT 1987 (c) * * * * SINGLE USER LICENSE * * DUAL DISK SYSTEM * * * * * * * ************************************************************** IBM PC & XT ARE LICENSED TRADEMARKS OF THE INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINE COMPANY. MULTIMATE AND DBASE III ARE LICENSED TRADEMARKS OF THE ASHTON-TATE CO. USED FOR REFERENCE ONLY. !!! AUTHOR CLAIMS NO BUSINESS RELATIONSHIP WITH THESE COMPANIES ! WELCOME TO MULTI MERGE !!!! MULTI MERGE IS A DATABASE PROGRAM THAT ALLOWS YOU, THE USER, TO DYNAMICALLY ADD, EDIT, DELETE, SORT, AND PRINT YOUR CUSTOMER OR CLIENT INFORMATION FOR SUBSEQUENT MERGING INTO YOUR WORD PROCESSOR'S MERGE DOCUMENTS. IT ALLOWS THE YOU TO SORT YOUR DATA BY NAME, COMPANY, ZIP OR BY 2 KEY FIELDS THAT YOU CAN TAILOR TO YOUR OWN APPLICATION. YOU CAN STORE UP TO 750 COMPLETE, DETAILED CLIENT RECORDS. IT IS NOT MEANT TO REPLACE YOUR WORD PROCESSOR BUT ENHANCE IT ! YOU MANIPULATE YOUR CLIENT DATA WITH MULTI MERGE, CREATE YOUR MERGE LIST AND THEN USE YOUR WORD PROCESSOR TO MERGE THE LIST WITH THE WORD PROCESSOR'S MERGE DOCUMENT ! MULTI MERGE REDUCES THE EFFORT NEEDED TO KEEP YOUR CLIENT DATA CORRECT AND UP TO DATE. IT IS ENTIRELY MENU DRIVEN. YOU DO NOT HAVE TO LEARN A NEW COMMAND STRUCTURE OR PROGRAMMING LANGUAGE TO USE IT. IT WAS DESIGNED FOR QUICK AND EASY DATA ENTRY. THE ONLY SKILL YOU NEED IS GOOD KEY STROKING ! THIS PROGRAM PRESUMES THAT THE USER (YOU) HAVE A WORKING KNOWLEDGE OF YOUR WORD PROCESSOR'S MERGE FUNCTIONS AND OF THE DOS OPERATING SYSTEM. SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS: A WORD PROCESSING SOFTWARE PACKAGE CAPABLE OF MERGING A ASCII LIST FILE WITH A MERGE DOCUMENT. IBM PC OR XT OR ANY MACHINE WITH 100% PC-DOS COMPATIBILITY 640K R.A.M. MEMORY IS STRONGLY SUGGESTED (512K MIN.) TWO 360K FLOPPY DISC DRIVES AN 80 COLUMN EPSON TYPE PRINTER COLOR OR MONOCHROME MONITOR (A TYPICAL BUSINESS-TYPE SET UP) COMPATIBILITY: THE ACTUAL DATABASE FILE IS DBASE III + COMPATIBLE. IF YOUR WORD PROCESSOR CAN MERGE A DBASE III DATABASE DIRECTLY, THERE IS NO NEED TO CREATE A MERGE LIST. JUST MERGE THE MERGE.DBF FILE DIRECTLY INTO THE WORD PROCESSOR. (NOTE: WARNING ! DO NOT USE DBASE TO CHANGE THE NAME OR STRUCTURE OF THIS FILE !! THIS WILL LEAD TO UNRECOVERABLE RUN TIME ERRORS AND POSSIBLE DATA LOSS !!). YOU CAN USE THE DATA FILE WITH DBASE FOR IMPORT INTO YOUR WORD PRO- CESSOR AND DBASE CUSTOM REPORT GENERATION ONLY. IF YOU CAN NOT DIRECTLY MERGE A DBASE III FILE THEN YOU MUST CREATE A SPECIAL MERGE LIST TO ALLOW IMPORT. THIS PROGRAM CAN CREATE TWO TYPES OF MERGE LISTS. THE CHOICES ARE DELIMITED ( MULTIMATE SUPPORTS THIS FORMAT) OR SDF ( A FORMAT SUPPORTED BY MOST WORD PROCESSING PACKAGES) BOTH FORMATS CREATE A MERGE.TXT FILE THAT IS AN ASCII TYPE FILE. THIS WILL BE THE FILE THAT YOU WILL THEN CALL UP & MERGE. NOTE: YOUR ACTUAL DATA WILL ALWAYS RESIDE IN THE CLIENT.DBF FILE. YOUR MERGE LIST CAN BE CONSIDERED A COPY OF THIS DATABASE THAT HAS BEEN SPECIALLY FORMATTED TO ALLOW IMPORT INTO YOUR WORD PROCESSOR. YOU DO NOT MANIPULATE DATA IN A MERGE LIST. IF YOU RE-SORT YOUR DATABASE, YOU WILL HAVE TO CREATE A NEW MERGE LIST ! ONCE AGAIN, PLEASE CONSULT YOUR WORD PROCESSOR'S MANUAL TO DETERMINE WHICH TYPE OF IMPORT FORMAT TO CHOOSE. TESTING IS PRESENTLY UNDERWAY TO DETERMINE COMPATIBILITY WITH OTHER POPULAR WORD PROCESSING PACKAGES. REGISTERED USERS MAY BE KEPT INFORMED OF THIS TESTING AND OTHER PROGRAM EN- HANCEMENTS. A QUICK WORD PROCESSOR COMPATIBILITY TEST: 1) IF IT CAN MERGE DELIMITED, SEQUENTIAL .TXT TYPE FILES, & USES QUOTATIONS FOR FIELD DELIMITERS & USES COMMAS FOR FIELD SEPERATORS & A CARRIAGE RETURN FOR RECORD SEPERATORS, 2) OR IF IT CAN MERGE A SYSTEM DATA FORMAT, .TXT TYPE FILE, 3) OR IF IT CAN DIRECTLY MERGE A DBASE III FILE, THEN.... YOU SHOULD BE ABLE TO MERGE THE LIST WITH YOUR WORD PROCESSOR. DUE TO THE LARGE VARIETY OF WORD PROCESSORS AVAILABLE, THE AUTHOR CAN NOT GUARANTEE IT WILL WORK WITH ALL OF THEM. USERS MAY HAVE TO RENAME THE MERGE.TXT FILE FOR SPECIFIC SOFTWARE. PLEASE CHECK YOUR WORD PROCESSORS MANUAL FOR MORE INFORMATION. *************************************************************** SHOWN BELOW IS THE TYPES OF DATA YOU CAN INPUT STRUCTURE OF THE DATABASE FILE, MERGE.DBF: INPUT INPUT FIELD NAME FIELD SIZE DBASE FIELD NAME FIRST NAME 10 FNAME LAST NAME 15 LNAME COMPANY NAME 25 COMP KEY FIELD 1 6 (NUMERIC ONLY) KEY1 KEY FIELD 2 10 KEY2 ADDRESS 20 ADDR CITY 20 CITY STATE 2 STATE ZIP 10 (FOR 9 DIGIT ZIP) ZIP PHONE 12 PHONE USER DEFINED FIELD (UDF) 20 UDF *********************************************************** SET UP: THIS PROGRAM IS A DUAL DISK SYSTEM: THE MULTI MERGE PROGRAM DISK WILL RESIDE IN DRIVE A: AND YOUR DATA DISK WILL RESIDE IN DRIVE B:. FIRST, YOU WILL NEED TO PREPARE YOUR TWO DISKS BEFORE EXE- CUTING THE PROGRAM. ACCORDING TO THE FOLLOWING INSTRUCTIONS: 1) FORMAT TWO FLOPPY DISKS (DUAL SIDED METHOD) 2) PUT THE MASTER PROGRAM DISK IN DRIVE A: YOU WILL BE COPYING FILES FROM THIS DISK TO DRIVE B: 3) COPY THE FILE MERGE.DBF TO ONE OF THESE FORMATTED DISKS. (USE THE DOS COPY COMMAND). THIS IS YOUR DATABASE DISK ! ALSO, THIS IS WHERE YOUR MERGE LIST WILL RESIDE AFTER YOU CREATE IT. 4) COPY THE PROGRAM FILE (MERGE.EXE) TO THE OTHER DISK FOR YOUR WORKING PROGRAM COPY. THIS IS YOUR PROGRAM DISK ! 5) COPY YOUR MERGE DOCUMENT (.DOC TYPE FILE) TO THE DATA DISK ALSO. IMPORTANT !!! THIS PROGRAM NEEDS PLENTY OF DISK SPACE IN ORDER TO DO ITS SORTING, HENCE THE 750 RECORD MAXIMUM ! KEEP THE NUMBER OF .DOC TYPE FILES ON THE DATA DISK IN DRIVE B: TO A BARE MINIMUM. YOU CREATE THE .DOC MERGE DOCUMENTS WITH YOUR WORD PROCESSOR. 6) DON'T FORGET TO LABEL YOUR DISKS. REMEMBER, ONE DISK CONTAINS THE ACTUAL PROGRAM. THE OTHER DISK CONTAINS THE DATABASE, YOUR MERGE LIST AND YOUR OWN MERGE DOCUMENTS. 7) STORE YOUR ORIGINAL MASTER PROGRAM DISK IN A SAFE PLACE. YOU MAY NEED IT TO MAKE A NEW WORKING COPY IF YOUR DISK FAILS. 8) IF ALL YOU DO IS PREPARE MERGE DOCUMENTS AND LISTS, THEN YOU WON'T HAVE TO REMOVE YOUR DATA DISK AT ALL WHEN YOU EXIT MULTI MERGE AND LOAD YOUR WORD PROCESSOR ! PRO- VIDED THAT YOU HAVE YOUR PREPARED MERGE LIST (MERGE.TXT) AND MERGE DOCUMENT FILES PRESENT ON THE DATABASE DISK. TO EXECUTE: 1) PUT THE PROGRAM DISK IN DRIVE A: (MAKE SURE A: IS THE CURRENT DRIVE !!). 2) PUT THE DATABASE DISK YOU PREPARED AS ABOVE IN DRIVE B: 3) TYPE 'MERGE' AT THE A> PROMPT AND PRESS THE ENTER KEY. THE PROGRAM WILL TAKE ABOUT 20 SECONDS TO LOAD. 4) IMPORTANT ! MAKE SURE YOU HAVE THE DATA DISK LOADED IN B: BEFORE YOU EXECUTE ! WHEN THE PROGRAM LOADS, IT CHECKS THE B: DRIVE FOR FILE 'MERGE.DBF' ! IF IT CAN NOT FIND THE FILE, IT WILL NOT EXECUTE ! 5) DO NOT REMOVE EITHER THE PROGRAM OR DATA DISK WHILE YOUR ARE IN MULTI MERGE. THIS PROGRAM CONTINOUSLY READS AND WRITES TO BOTH DISKS DURING EXECUTITON ! IF YOU REMOVE EITHER DISK BEFORE YOU HAVE EXITED THE PROGRAM FROM THE MAIN MENU, UNRECOVERABLE RUN-TIME AND DATA ERRORS WILL RESULT. ALWAYS EXIT TO THE DOS PROMPT BEFORE REMOVING DISKS! ************************************************************** THE MAIN MENU: YOU WILL THEN SEE THE MAIN MENU OF MAIL MERGE. ALL YOUR TASKS WILL BEGIN AND RETURN AT THIS MENU! AS YOU SEE, ALL YOUR CHOICES ARE LAID OUT FOR YOU!! ALL YOU HAVE TO DO IS TYPE IN YOUR CHOICE OF FUNCTION AND PRESS ENTER. WHEN YOU WANT TO LEAVE MULTI MERGE, JUST TYPE '0' AND YOU WILL RETURN TO THE DOS PROMPT! *************************************************************** CHOICE 1 THE 'ADD A CLIENT' FUNCTION OBVIOUSLY, BEFORE YOU CAN MAIL MERGE YOUR DATABASE, YOU MUST ADD DATA TO IT! JUST TYPE '1' AND PRESS ENTER FROM THE MAIN MENU AND YOU'LL BE IN THE ADD FUNCTION. THIS ADD FUNCTION ALLOWS FULL SCREEN DATA ENTRY. YOU WILL NOTICE THAT THE CURSOR WILL BE POSITIONED ON THE FIRST FIELD, FIRST NAME. ALL FIELDS ARE CLEARLY INDICATED. ALL YOU HAVE TO DO IS START TYPING IN THE CLIENT DATA AND PRESS ENTER AFTER YOU HAVE TYPED IN EACH INPUT FIELD. A FEW RULES THOUGH: ON THE FIRST AND LAST NAMES, ONLY ALPHABETIC DATA CAN BE ENTERED. THE FIRST LETTERS OF THE FIRST AND LAST NAME WILL ALWAYS BE FORCED INTO UPPERCASE! ONLY NUMERIC DATA CAN BE ENTERED IN THE KEY FIELD 1 !!! ANY TYPE OF DATA CAN BE ADDED TO KEY FIELD 2. ALL CURSOR MOVEMENT KEYS EXCEPT PGUP, PGDN FUNCTION PROPERLY. AVOID HITTING THESE KEYS ! TO MOVE FROM FIELD TO FIELD YOU CAN PRESS THE 'ENTER' KEY OR THE UP / DOWN CURSOR KEYS. REMEMBER, ONCE YOU'VE HIT ENTER ON THE LAST FIELD, THAT RECORD WILL BE STORED AND THE PROGRAM WILL PROMPT YOU ON WHETHER YOU WANT TO ENTER ANOTHER CLIENT RECORD ! DO NOT TYPE THE UP CURSOR KEY ON THE FIRST FIELD WHEN ADDING A RECORD ! UNPREDICTABLE RESULTS WILL OCCUR ! THE PROGRAM CHECKS TO MAKE SURE THAT YOU AT LEAST ENTER A LAST NAME AT THE BARE MINIMUM. YOU DO NOT HAVE TO ENTER DATA IN THE OTHER FIELDS IF YOU DON'T WANT TO ! IF YOU DO HIT 'ENTER' THROUGH ALL THE FIELDS, INCLUDING THE LAST NAME FIELD, AND TRY TO STORE THE RECORD, AN ERROR MESSAGE WILL RETURN. YOU CAN THEN ONLY RETURN TO THE MAIN MENU AND TRY AGAIN ! RULE OF THUMB: ENTER MOVES YOU FORWARD ONE FIELD, UP CURSOR MOVES YOU BACK ONE FIELD WHEN ADDING OR EDITING DATA. REMEMBER, THE KEY FIELDS ARE GREAT FIELDS TO PUT CUSTOMER, CASE, I.D., ETC. NUMBERS SINCE YOU CAN SORT THE DATABASE BY THESE KEY FIELDS ! THE UDF FIELD IS FOR 'NICE TO KNOW' DATA, SUCH AS COMMENTS OR REMARKS.(UDF = USER DEFINED FIELD) REMEMBER, THE DEFINITION OF A 'KEY' IS A SPECIAL, UNIQUE CODE OR VALUE THAT CAN BE ATTRIBUTED TO RECORD, IN THIS CASE, A CLIENT. IF YOU USE THE THE SAME VALUE OR CODE FOR TWO OR MORE RECORDS, AND THE SORT THE DATABASE BY A KEY FIELD, YOU WILL NOT GET THE SORT ORDER YOU INTENDED. KEEP THE KEY FIELD UNIQUE FOR EACH RECORD ! AS YOU WILL NOTICE AFTER YOU ENTER EACH RECORD, A PROMPT WILL APPEAR ASKING YOU IF YOU WANT TO ADD ANOTHER RECORD IF YOU TYPE A 'Y', IT WILL GIVE YOU A 'FRESH' INPUT SCREEN. IF YOU TYPE 'N', IT WILL RETURN YOU TO THE MAIN MENU. THE PROGRAM DOES NOT CHECK FOR DUPLICATE RECORDS ! THE USER IS RESPONSIBLE FOR CHECKING FOR DUPLICATES ! HAVING THE PROGRAM CHECK FOR DUPLICATES WOULD'VE SLOWED DOWN DATA ENTRY ! *********************************************************** CHOICE 2 EDIT A CLIENT FUNCTION AFTER YOU ADD A CLIENT RECORD, YOU MAY WANT TO COME BACK LATER AND EDIT IT. JUST TYPE '2' AT THE MAIN MENU AND PRESS ENTER TO ACCESS THE NEXT MENU, THE RETRIEVAL METHOD. MULTI MERGE ALLOWS YOU TO RETRIEVE THE CLIENT RECORD BY THREE METHODS - BY FULL NAME OR KEY FIELDS 1 & 2 TYPE IN THE METHOD YOU WANT AND PRESS ENTER. ANOTHER PROMPT WILL APPEAR ASKING YOU TO TYPE IN THE RESPECTIVE VALUE FOR THAT METHOD. REMEMBER, YOU CAN NOT SEARCH BY NAME IF YOUR PICK THE KEY FIELD 1 METHOD OF RE- TRIEVAL, ETC. AFTER YOU'VE ENTERED THE VALUE, THE RECORD WILL APPEAR. REMEMBER, A FULL NAME OR A FULL KEY NUMBER MUST BE EN- TERED !!! ANYTHING LESS AND THE PROGRAM WILL RETURN AN ERROR MESSAGE !!! THE FOURTH MENU CHOICE WILL RETURN YOU BACK TO THE MAIN MENU. REMEMBER, THE PROGRAM CHECKS FOR EXACT MATCHES ! IF THE CLIENT RECORD CAN NOT BE FOUND, YOU WILL BE PROMPTED WITH AN ERROR MESSAGE. PRESS ENTER AND YOU WILL RETURN TO THE MENU. ONCE YOU'VE RETRIEVED A CLIENT RECORD, THE REST IS EASY. ALL YOU HAVE TO DO IS USE YOUR CURSOR MOVEMENT KEYS TO THE PLACE THE CURSOR WHERE YOU WANT TO EDIT AND OVERTYPE ! THIS FUNCTION FOLLOWS MOST OF THE INPUT RULES LISTED IN THE ADD FUNCTION ABOVE. YOU CAN EVEN USE THIS FUNCTION AS AN INQUIRY SCREEN BY CALLING UP THE CLIENT RECORD AND HITTING ENTER THRU ALL THE INPUT FIELDS AND NOT TYPING IN DATA. DEPENDING ON YOUR PC, YOU CAN ALSO USE YOUR PRINT SCREEN KEY TO PRINT OUT A QUICK & DIRTY COPY OF THAT CLIENT RECORD. *********************************************************** CHOICE 3 DELETE A CLIENT RECORD AFTER YOU'VE USED THIS DATABASE PROGRAM A WHILE, YOU MAY WANT TO DELETE OLD CLIENT RECORDS. AFTER YOU'VE MADE YOUR CHOICE FROM THE MAIN MENU, A PROMPT WILL APPEAR ASKING YOU FOR THE RECORD NUMBER OF THE CLIENT YOU WANT TO DELETE. YOU CAN GET THE RECORD NUMBERS FROM THE DATABASE PRINTOUT, FUNCTION 6). JUST TYPE '3' AND PRESS ENTER. A PROMPT WILL APPEAR ASKING YOU FOR THE RECORD NUMBER OF THE CLIENT YOU WANT DELETED. TYPE IN THE NUMBER AND PRESS ENTER. THE CLIENT RECORD WILL THEN BE DISPLAYED FOR YOU. THE PROGRAM WILL THEN PROMPT YOU BY ASKING IF THIS IS THE CORRECT RECORD YOU WANTED DELETED. YOU THEN HAVE TWO CHOICES : IF YOU TYPE 'N', YOU WILL PROMPTED TO TYPE IN THE NEXT NUMBER YOU WANT TO DELETE,( IT WILL NOT DELETE THE PREVIOUS RECORD !) IF YOU TYPE 'Y', IT WILL DELETE THE RECORD AND ASK YOU IF YOU WANT TO DELETE ANOTHER. TYPE 'Y' AGAIN AND THE PROMPT WILL RETURN ASKING YOU FOR THE NEXT RECORD NUMBER YOU WANT TO DELETE. ONCE YOU HAVE FINISHED DELETING RECORDS, TYPE 'N' AT PROMPT TO RE- TURN TO THE MAIN MENU AND THE DATABASE WILL BE STRIPPED OF THOSE RECORDS MARKED FOR DELETION. IMPORTANT !! THESE RECORDS CAN NOT BE RETRIEVED AS THEY HAVE NOW BEEN ERASED ! IF YOU DO ACCIDENTLY DELETE A CLIENT RECORD YOU DO WANT, JUST RE-INPUT THE DATA WITH FUNCTION 1) ADD A CLIENT. *********************************************************** CHOICE 4 SORT THE CLIENT DATABASE BEFORE YOU PREPARE THE MERGE LIST FOR IMPORT INTO THE WORD PROCESSOR, YOU WILL PROBABLY WANT TO SORT IT ! TYPE '4' AND PRESS ENTER FROM THE MAIN MENU. YOU WILL SEE ANOTHER MENU ASKING YOU WHAT KIND OF SORT ORDER YOU WANT. YOU CAN SORT ON LAST NAME-FIRST NAME, BY COMPANY, ZIP OR BY KEY FIELDS 1 OR 2 (REMEMBER, THE KEY FIELDS CAN BE USED TO CUSTOMIZE MULTI MERGE FOR YOUR NEEDS.) THE PROGRAM WILL TAKE SEVERAL MOMENTS TO SORT THE DATA- BASE AND THEN THE MENU WILL RE-APPEAR. REMEMBER TO SORT YOUR DATABASE BEFORE YOU PREPARE YOUR MERGE LIST ! THIS FUNCTION PHYSICALLY SORTS THE MERGE.DBF FILE AND ERASES THE PREVIOUS MERGE.TXT FILE. THIS ENSURES THAT YOU'RE ALWAYS WORKING WITH THE LATEST VERSION OF THE MERGE LIST DATA. *********************************************************** CHOICE 5 PREPARE THE MERGE LIST BEFORE YOU CAN USE YOUR WORD PROCESSOR TO MERGE YOUR CLIENT LIST, YOU MUST CHOOSE YOUR MERGE FILE FORMAT AND PREPARE A FRESH MERGE LIST. TYPE '5' AND PRESS ENTER AT THE MAIN MENU. AFTER YOU'VE MADE THIS CHOICE, THE PROGRAM WILL PROMPT YOU WITH A MENU WHERE YOU CAN CHOOSE YOUR MERGE LIST FORMAT. TYPE THE NUMBER OF THE FORMAT YOU NEED AND PRESS ENTER. THE PROGRAM WILL THEN CREATE A FILE CALLED 'MERGE.TXT'. THIS IS THE FILE YOU WILL CALL UP ONCE YOU'VE LOADED YOUR WORD PROCESSOR AND CALLED UP ITS MERGE FUNCTIONS. ALSO, YOU'LL NOTICE THAT YOU'LL BE BACK AT THE MAIN MENU AGAIN ! REMEMBER TO PREPARE YOUR MERGE LIST BEFORE YOU LEAVE THIS PROGRAM AND LOAD YOUR WORD PROCESSOR !!! THIS FUNCTION CREATES A MERGE LIST BASED ON THE SORT ORDER OF THE MERGE.DBF FILE. READ YOUR WORD PROCESSOR'S MANUAL TO DETERMINE THE APPRO- PRIATE FORMAT TYPE. *********************************************************** CHOICE 6 PRINT LIST OF CLIENTS AFTER YOU'VE ENTERED ALL THOSE CLIENTS, YOU'LL PROBABLY WANT A PRINTOUT OF THEM. THIS IS A VERY SIMPLE PRINT OUT. IT IS MEANT FOR YOU TO BROWSE AFTER YOU'VE INPUTTED DATA AND WANT TO MAKE SURE IT WAS ENTERED CORRECTLY. YOU WILL NOTICE THAT THE FIRST COLUMN OF THE PRINT OUT LISTS THE RECORD NUMBERS. THESE RECORD NUMBERS ARE THE SEQUENTIAL ORDER OF EACH CLIENT IN THE DATABASE. THESE ARE THE RECORD NUMBERS YOU USE TO DELETE WITH IN THE DELETE A CLIENT FUNCTION ! SINCE THE RECORD SIZE IS MORE THAN 132 COLUMNS, YOU WILL NOTICE THAT THE DATA WRAPS AROUND TO THE NEXT LINE. IT WOULD BE A GOOD IDEA TO PRINT OUT THE DATABASE JUST AFTER YOU'VE MADE YOUR DELETIONS AND BEFORE MAKING YOUR EDITS. THIS IS A PRINTOUT OF THE MERGE.DBF FILE, NOT MERGE.TXT ! *********************************************************** IF YOU ARE USING MULITMATE, YOU WILL WANT TO FOLLOW THESE INSTRUCTIONS EXACTLY WHEN SETTING UP YOUR MERGE DOCUMENT !! SET YOUR UP YOUR MULTIMATE MERGE DOCUMENT UP AS FOLLOWS: DEFINE (NOTE: DON'T FORGET THE ALT - M KEYSTROKES) FILE TYPE ?????? (FILE TYPE DEPENDS ON WHAT FORMAT WAS CHOSEN) FIELD NAME FNAME FIELD NAME LNAME FIELD NAME COMP FIELD NAME KEY1 FIELD NAME KEY2 FIELD NAME ADDR FIELD NAME CITY FIELD NAME STATE FIELD NAME ZIP FIELD NAME PHONE FIELD NAME UDF END DEFINE IF YOU DO NOT HAVE YOUR MERGE DOCUMENT DEFINE STATEMENTS LISTED EXACTLY AS ABOVE, YOUR MERGE LIST AND DOCUMENT WILL BE OUT OF SYNCH WITH EACH OTHER ! THIS IS NOT BECAUSE OF MULTI MERGE !!! THIS IS BECAUSE WORD PROCESSING MERGE PROGRAMS DO NOT FULLY RECOGNIZE THE FIELD NAMES OF DATABASE PROGRAMS. NOTE TO NON-MULTIMATE USERS: REMEMBER, YOU HAVE TWO TYPES OF MERGE LIST FILE FORMATS: DELIMITED AND SDF. BETWEEN THESE TWO FORMATS, YOU SHOULD BE ABLE TO MERGE YOUR LIST WITH JUST ABOUT ANY WORD PROCESSOR WITH MERGE CAPABILITIES. OTHER WORD PROCESSING PROGRAMS MAY SET UP THEIR MERGE DOCUMENTS DIFFERENTLY. REMEMBER THOUGH, TO ALWAYS DEFINE THE ABOVE FIELDS IN THE EXACT SAME ORDER AS LISTED OR YOUR MERGE DOCUMENT WILL NOT EXECUTE CORRECTLY. READ YOUR MANUAL !! ALSO, YOU DO NOT HAVE TO INCORPORATE ALL THE ABOVE FIELDS IN THE BODY OF YOUR MERGE DOCUMENT IF YOU DO NOT NEED THEM ! YOU JUST HAVE TO MAKE SURE YOU DEFINE ALL OF THEM FIRST ! YOU CAN EVEN USE THE SAME FIELD TWICE OR MORE WITHIN THE MERGE DOCUMENT ! YOU MAY BE ABLE TO PRINT OUT MAILING LABELS AND ROLODEX CARDS USING THIS PROGRAM ! JUST CREATE A SPECIAL MERGE DOCUMENT FOR EACH TYPE AND WHEN IT COMES TIME TO PRINT FROM WITHIN YOUR WORD PRO- CESSOR, JUST CHANGE THE NUMBER OF LINES PER PAGE TO 6 - 20, DEPENDING ON THE HEIGHT OF THE FORM. REMEMBER, YOU MUST USE TRACTOR FED FORMS AND YOU CAN ONLY PRINT LABELS ONE WIDE. EXPERIMENT WITH YOUR WORD PROCESSOR. YOU MIGHT BE ABLE TO CREATE MERGE DOCUMENTS, ROLODEXES, AND LABELS FROM THE SAME MERGE LIST ! (AUTHOR DOES NOT GUARANTEE THIS, THOUGH) REMEMBER, THE FILE NAME OF THE MERGE LIST IS MERGE.TXT ! *********************************************************** COPYRIGHT INFORMATION/AUTHORSHIP: THIS PROGRAM IS NOT COPY PROTECTED SO AS TO ALLOW THE USER THE RIGHT TO MAKE ONE WORKING COPY OF THE PROGRAM AND STORE THE ORIGINAL DISK. THIS IS NOT A SITE LICENSE, A LICENSE TO REPRODUCE THIS PROGRAM FOR PROFIT, OR FOR BULLETIN BOARD DISTRIBUTION. AUTHOR RETAINS ALL RIGHTS AS HOW THIS WORK IS TO BE MARKETED AND DISTRIBUTED. COPYRIGHT 1987 (C) SUBJECT TO ALL COPYRIGHT LAWS OF UNITED STATES. *********************************************************** WARRANTY: THE AUTHOR WARRANTIES THAT THIS IS AN EXECUTABLE, WORKING PRO- GRAM AT TIME OF RELEASE. FAILURE TO PROPERLY FOLLOW THE INSTRUCTIONS CAN CAUSE THE PROGRAM TO FAIL OR CORRUPT YOUR DATA. THE AUTHOR IS NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR PROGRAM / DATA DAMAGE BECAUSE OF HARDWARE FAILURE, DISK FAILURE, ACTS OF GOD, OR USER ABUSE ! THIS PROGRAM WILL ONLY WORK ON 100%, TRUE IBM WORKALIKES. A CONSISTENT DATA BACKUP PROCEDURE IS YOUR BEST PROTECTION AGAINST THE ABOVE HAZARDS !!! ALWAYS BACK UP YOUR DATA DISK ON A REGULAR BASIS ! *********************************************************** ADDENDUM: THIS PROGRAM HAS BEEN SUCCESSFULLY USED BY THIS PROGRAMMER AND IS MEANT TO EFFICIENTLY BRIDGE THE GAP IN THE MAIL MERGE FUNCTIONS IN WORD PROCESSING PACKAGES. IT WAS DESIGNED FOR THE SMALL TO MEDIUM OR INDEPENDENT BUSINESS IN MIND. THIS PROGRAMMER IS ALSO AN INDEPENDENT BUSINESS. A DONATION OF $10 WOULD BE APPRECIATED AND WILL ALSO MAKE THE DONATEE A REGISTERED USER, SUBJECT TO POSSIBLE FUTURE UPGRADES. ALSO, I WOULD APPRECIATE ANY COMMENTS YOU MIGHT HAVE ABOUT MULTI MERGE. SEND DONATIONS AND COMMENTS TO: K. J. CUNNINGHAM 6987-L ROSWELL RD. NE ATLANTA, GA 30328 *********************************************************** POSSIBLE FUTURE ENHANCMENTS: 1) A HARD DISK VERSION (INCREASED RECORD STORAGE) 2) IMPROVED DATA PRINT OUT 3) IMPROVED DOCUMENT AND MAIL LABEL CAPABILITIES 4) MORE MERGE LIST FORMATS FOR DIFFERENT WORD PROCESSORS 5) SELECTIVE SORTS OF CLIENT DATA THE AMOUNT OF DONATIONS AND COMMENTS WILL DETERMINE IF FUTURE UPGRADES ARE FEASIBLE.