This file created using 9 point MONACO font. (TAB = 3 spaces)
Your FORM IT! package has been compressed with Stuffit. It should contain the following files:
• FORM IT!
• FORM IT! docs
• Registration Form (a FORM IT! file)
• Samples of FORM IT! forms and files:
-Invoice Form and Invoice Data File
-Service Invoice Form, Service Invoice Data File and
Service Invoice Notes
-Certificate Form and Certificate Data File
-Form Template: Sample showing FORM IT! page sizes using
Imagewriter
• Road Map in PICT file format showing basic FORM IT! functions
• PICTKey FKEY
If you didn't get all of these files, just send me a disk & a self-addressed stamped envelope and I will send you the latest version of FORM IT! along with all the other files. PLEASE, when uploading FORM IT! to a BBS or giving it to friends, keep all these files together.
FORM IT! is a form and data managing software package which will automate your tasks and assist you in the tedious job of managing forms. Here are some examples. I bet you'll be able to think of a lot more after you begin working with FORM IT!
• Create a certificate to honor your employees or students. Design your certificates in MacDraw™, Cricket Draw™, MacPaint™ (or any program that supports PICT files or MacPaint™ files). Use FORM IT! to personalize each certificate with the appropriate name, date and honor.
• Design an invoice in Pagemaker™. Put all the boxes, lines, etc. you need to meet your billing needs. Use the PICTKey FKEY which is bundled with FORM IT! to convert your PageMaker™ design into a PICT file. Use FORM IT! to enter all your billing data. FORM IT! will total columns or any fields you specify, add tax, give you sub-totals and even put in the correct date. Small companies who want nice looking invoices will love FORM IT!
• Draw a purchase order form. Use FORM IT! to put your data into the right boxes. Enter your data on-line or import data from a text file you have created. Professional looking purchase orders, with their automatically calculated fields, will be an asset to any business.
• Planning a party? Make your invitations more inviting with personalization done by FORM IT! Sketch your design in MacPaint™ and let FORM IT! show your Imagewriter™ where to put each name.
• Would you like to get an estimate of your taxes for the coming year. Design your 1040 form in any program that supports PICT files or MacPaint™ files. Use FORM IT! to put in calculated fields and then add your personal tax information. You can use this form over and over when you want to keep track of your tax liabilities.
• If you have a lot of packages to mail, design a stunning full page label in your favorite draw program. Use FORM IT! to insert each addressee's name right into each label. Print them out one after the other.
Those uses are just a start. Write and tell me what FORM IT! does for you.
Before you open FORM IT! you will need to create a form design. You can create this with any program that supports PICT files or MacPaint™ files. If your program doesn't support PICT files or MacPaint™ files, but will let you copy your design or artwork into the clipboard, you will still be able to use FORM IT! A special PICTKey FKEY has been included with your FORM IT! package to help you. Use this FKEY to take the artwork from your clipboard and save it to a PICT file.
You just install the FKEY with your favorite FKEY installer and when you need it, hit command-shift-#n (n = whatever number you installed it under, usually 1-9). If there is a picture on the clipboard, it will be displayed in the scrollable window, go to the file menu of the FKEY and select the proper option to save it as a PICT file. As an extra option I've added a way to open PICT files and place them on the clipboard from within this FKEY, though not useful for FORM IT! it could be useful in other programs. This FKEY will not be necessary if you use a drawing program that supports PICT or MacPaint™ files.
NOTE: When using a program that doesn't support PICT files, you should draw a rectangle that encloses the entire page in which you are designing your form. Then make the rectangle invisible by selecting the appropriate pen pattern. Before copying your design to the clipboard, make sure you "select all" (including the invisible rectangle) first. This ensures that your design is aligned the way you created it because you are using the invisible rectangle as an anchor.
It is also possible to use FORM IT! without a form design. Of course, there would be no form outline for you to see, but you could enter data and create a document that would still be useful, such as printing your data to pre-printed forms.
1: Choose "New Template" from the "File" menu.
2: Select the appropriate menu option for the type of form design you have created ("Import MacPaint file" or "Import PICT file" from the "Design" menu).
3: FORM IT! pages are normally 8 1/2 x 11 inches. You can create different sized pages by changing the settings in "Page Setup" from the "File" menu. A form can be up to 2 pages wide by 2 pages deep. If your form is larger than one page, choose "Form Size" from the "Layout" menu and set it appropriately.
4: Click on the second tool in the tool pallet (on the upper left side of your screen). This is the field creation tool which allows you to put a new field anywhere on the form. The order you add your fields to your form is the order that data will be input while you are in data entry/edit mode or when you import a text file to fill out the form. Add your field by clicking the mouse and dragging to draw a rectangle. Don't worry if it's not perfect; you can always resize it or move it later! After releasing the mouse button, a dialog box will come up asking you to define the field attributes. (Please note: If you need to do a calculated field at this time, refer to the instructions in #5. Although, I do recommend that you do your calculated fields after your regular fields are entered.) Note: There is a limit of 1256 characters per field in data/entry mode.
4a: What is in the dialog box: Field name (optional) is a name you give this field to help you identify it among all the other fields. Is Field Visible is checked normally, but if you don't want this field to show up on screen or printer for some reason, just uncheck it (this is useful if you are importing a text file from a database file, but don't want certain fields used in it to show up). Select a font, font size, justification and select the Text or Number button depending on which type of field you are adding. Now click the Ok! button to accept the new field, or Cancel not to. Repeat this for as many fields as you need for your form.
5: If you wish to have any calculated fields (for adding, subtracting, dividing or multiplying) in your form, click on the third tool in the tool pallet of the window. This is the calculated field tool. You add these fields just as you do regular fields although there are three additional options in this dialog box.
5a: What is in the dialog box: Use Comma's - check this option to add commas to calculated numbers. Use $ Sign - this option adds a $ to the left of the calculated number. Decimal Digits - this lets you specify how many digits to the right of a decimal place will be used (normally 2 for dollar amounts).
5b: After clicking the Ok! button, the tool pallet changes into buttons. Notice the "+" sign in the lower left hand corner of the window. This is the current operation for defining your calculated number. If you are just going to add up a row of fields, all you have to do is to click on each field you want added (in the order you want them added) with the mouse. Each one is highlighted and added to the calculation formula. You can scroll the window normally to move around, but you cannot select any menus until you've clicked either the "OK" or "NO" buttons in the pallet. You can also use the value of any other calculated field (only the ones numbered BEFORE the one you are editing or adding) in your formula by clicking on a calculated field while defining your formula. If you want to do calculations with another operator (+,-,/,*), just click on the appropriate button to change the operator in the lower left corner. That new operator will be used until changed again in your formula. Also note the "#" button. You can enter any number to be used in your calculation by clicking this button. Clicking the "OK" button will then bring up another dialog box. This allows you to enter/edit the formula by typing it or allows you to go back and use the mouse again to re-do the formula. (See #5c for an explanation of the actual formula text.) If the formula is the way you want it, click the "Ok!" button to accept the new field. Repeat steps 6-9 until all the calculated fields have been added.
5c: Parts of a formula: A formula will start with one of these characters (F, C, # or P). After F or C will be a number which is the number of the actual field used in the calculation. After the # sign will be a number to be used in the calculation. The P will not have a number after it. (The P will use the form number given to it in the data file.) Between these characters are the operators (+,-,*,/ which are add, subtract, multiply or divide, respectively.) Example formulas: "F1*F10*#.06", this would multiply the contents of field number 1 by that of field number 10 and multiply that result by the number .06 (this could be used to figure the tax). The formula "C1+C2" would add the numbers which were calculated in the calculated fields numbers 1 and 2.
6: Save your new form template by going to the "File" menu and selecting the "Save As..." option.
7: HINT: Select the "Set Field Defaults..." menu option under the "Layout" menu to set up your field entry/edit defaults for adding new fields. You won't have to keep changing the font, font size, etc., of every field you add when you set field defaults.
8: You may now select the "Data file preferences..." menu option under the "Design" menu to choose how each field will be separated in its data file. Use this if you are going to be either exporting data to or importing data from your favorite database program that can import/export its data as text files. You should choose whatever "delimiter" that your database uses. Most of them will use comma or tab delimited text files. A tab will probably be your best choice; tab is the default option. Remember, whatever character you choose cannot be input to a field while in data entry/edit mode.
9: Once you've completed setting up your form, save it. But, of course, to be safe, you have been saving all along, haven't you?
10: You can always change any aspect of your form template (the form you create in design mode), such as deleting, adding, editing, moving, resizing, etc. fields. The only exception is when a data file is open, you will not be able to add, delete, duplicate, or renumber any fields. Remember, if you add, delete, or renumber any fields in a template or have any files associated with the old form template, you should create a new data file to go with the new form. Also, keep a copy of the old template to be able to handle the old data files.
10a: Editing a field is very simple. Just select the arrow tool from the pallet and click on the field you wish to edit (or delete, move, resize, etc.) You can now move it anywhere on the form by dragging it. Or, you can resize it by grabbing any one of the four (one in each corner) handles and drag it to its new size. If you want to edit its field attributes, (font, font size, style, field name, etc.), just select the option "Edit Field Attributes" under the "Field" menu. From here you can change any of its attributes. If the field you are editing is a calculated field, you can also easily edit its formula in the same manner after clicking the Ok! button. When you are finished changing your field attributes, click the "Ok!" button.
If you want to change the font attributes of several fields at once, you can choose the option "Global Field Attribute Changer" from the "Fields" menu. This will use the current setting of the field defaults. You can set these defaults by choosing the "Set Field Defaults" option under the "Layout" menu. In the "Global Field Attribute Changer" dialog box: you can change font characteristics by checking any or all of the boxes; you can also choose which type of fields you are changing (normal or calculated); and you can choose a select group of fields to change by clicking on the Some button, and filling out which numbers of fields to change (e.g., 1 thru 5) or by selecting the "All" option to change all fields of the specified type.
10b: The option "Renumber Field" under the "Fields" menu will renumber the selected field to the number you specify. This option is useful if you have created several fields and discover that you have forgotten to put a field in where it should be. To do this, create a new field. Choose the "Renumber Field" option and type the number of the field where the new field should go. The field is then renumbered and the fields that follow the one you've changed are renumbered. The order in which the fields are numbered is very important because this is the order in which the field data will be input into the form during data entry/edit or when importing a text file!
11: Now its off to data entry/editing!
12: Select "Go to Form Data Managing" from the "Layout" menu to go into data management mode. Select "New data file..." from the "Data" menu. Now to start entering your data, just click on your starting field. You will see a blinking cursor. Type your data and hit the Tab key to go to the next field (or click the mouse to go to any other field). Holding down the Option key while hitting the tab key will go to the field before the one you are currently in. Or, you can hold down the shift key while hitting the tab key to select all of the data in the next field. If the field you tab to is out of view, it will be scrolled into view automatically. Text in any field can be selected by double clicking or shift clicking. You can cut & paste text to and from any field.
13: While entering/editing a form's data, if you click in a scroll bar or do any operation that may affect which form you are currently working on (such as searching for text in any form in your data file or moving to a different form, the screen will take a moment to redraw. It will also do this each time you view your form with new data in it.
You can see what form you are currently working on by looking at the numbers in the lower left corner of the window. Right now it should say "1 of 1" since you have just opened a new data file.
NOTE: While in data entry/edit mode, the name of the current data file open is in the windows title after the name of the form template file.
NOTE: To make it easier to find all of the fields of the form while in data entry/edit mode, choose the option "Show Field Boxes" from the "Layout" menu. This will show a dashed line around each field in the form.
14: When you wish to add another form to enter data in, select either "Append New Form" or "Append Copy Current Form". A new form will be appended to the end of the data file and you can enter/edit data. The second option is useful if the form you're adding has data similar to the current form so you don't have to retype duplicate data. (Remember to save your work every once in a while by selecting "Save data file" from the "Data" menu.)
15: You can edit any of the data in your data files just by opening the data file and moving to whichever form you wish to edit by: clicking the arrows in the tool pallet to scroll to the appropriate form or by searching for text in a specific field (see Searching, below) or by moving right to the form by selecting "Go To Form #" under the "Search" menu and typing the number of the form you wish to view or edit.
16: To search for any text (or numbers) in any form in the data file, select the "Find" option under the "Search" menu. The window title will then say "Click in field to search by". You can either click on a field or click in any part of the window without a field to cancel the search. Click on the field you wish to search by. The field will blink and a dialog box will come up asking for the search text. You can type the whole word or just a few characters for your search. The FORM IT! search option is not case sensitive. You will find any occurrences of your text in any form in the data file if there is a match. Once the match is found, it will move to the form where the text was found. You can also search for the next occurrence of the same text when you are searching by the same field by choosing "Find Next" from the "Search" menu.
17: Printing; you can print any form in the current data file by selecting either printing tool in the pallet. The box with the "1" in the middle will print just the current form. The box with "All" will let you specify which forms to print. You will also be able to print using the option "Print All Forms" under the "File" menu. When this print dialog box comes up, you can fill in the form numbers you wish to have printed in the From/To boxes. If you wish to only print out the data, and not its "picture" template (the form you imported from your drawing/paint program), you must select the option "Hide Picture" under the "Layout" while in form design mode.
18: NOTE: During data entry/editing, calculated fields will only be recalculated during a screen redraw, such as when you scroll the form manually, or when it scrolls a field into view for you.
19: The following is information to help you in importing and exporting data to and from your form.
EXPORT: If you wish to export all the data from your currently opened data file to a text file (for use by a word processor or a database program that can import text files), do these steps: #1 save any changes to your currently opened data file if needed; #2 select the "Save As data file..." option under the "Data" menu; #3 give it an appropriate name (other than what it is now); #4 while holding down the option key, click the Save buttton; #5 after it has completed saving the text file, if you wish to do further work on the data file, you should select the "Open data file..." option from the "Data" menu to reopen the data file you were working on.
IMPORT: To import a text file (which should be delimited with the same character that the database or text file requires, such as the tab character), do these steps: #1 hold down the Option key while selecting the "Open data file..." option from the "Data" menu; #2 it will now show a list of all the text files on the selected drive, just open the one you wish and the data will be imported into the current form; #3 if you wish to convert that text file over to a FORM IT! data file, just do a "Save data file" from the "Data" menu and it will now be in the Form It! format.
I would like to thank all the people who've helped me so much with this project, by testing it, pointing out the bugs, giving me all kinds of marvelous suggestions, and letting me bug (not necessarily in the software bug sense of the word) them so often. Many thanks to Kaaren Buffington for bug hunting (not always on purpose), testing, creating the sample certificate and especially for all the time she's put into creating the help file/manual/ tutorial you're reading right now, to Greg Gehr for all his suggestions, testing and especially for creating the service invoice form, to Mike Kowell for all his suggestions and for taking the time to take my Mac apart and working on it when it was sick and needed surgery, to Brenda Holder for her unfailing support and many contributions and also thanks to Lewis Bright for helping in the early days of FORM IT!
PLEASE, if you haven't already done so, send in the requested fee of $40 for FORM IT! You can fill out & print the Registration Form with FORM IT! and send it with your fee. If you would like a fully illustrated MacWrite™ version of this documentation which will include screen pictures and more tips and helpful hints, include a blank disk and a stamped self-addressed envelope with your check.
It has taken me a very long time to complete FORM IT! I plan many new features for version 2.0, such as, in design mode: multiple field selections, alignment tools, more functions to use in calculated fields (IF, ELSE, etc.), setting up of selective field entry (only allow certain values or certain kinds of data to be accepted during data entry), etc, and in data entry/edit mode: help for form entry, such as a different help note for each field if the data entry person needs it (as set up in design mode), quicker screen redraws, faster data file opening and many more.
I need your help to continue my efforts with this application. Please use the registration form that comes bundled with your FORM IT! package. You can print it out easily and mail me your check while you're thinking about it.
