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-
File Express(tm) User's Guide
-----------------------------------------
S O R T I N G T H E D A T A B A S E
-----------------------------------------
As you enter new information into the records of a file an index
is built. This index is in the order that the records are typed
in. If you then print a report or labels, they will be printed
in the same order. But if you would like a report printed in al-
phabetical or numerical order by a certain field or fields you
must first SORT the index.
The sorting capabilities in File Express are very powerful. You
can sort on up to ten fields deep, with each one being sorted
into ascending or descending order independent of each other. In
addition, you may choose a subset of a field to sort on. For
example, you may choose the last two characters of a date field
or the middle five digits of a serial number. Selection of fields
to sort on is very easy, as is the selection of the length, type,
and location of the sort for each field.
To sort the Index of a file, press <4> while viewing the Main Menu.
When the sort program has been loaded, a list of fields for the
current file will appear. If the record has more than 20 fields,
you may use <PgUp> and <PgDn> to view both pages.
The first prompt is:
"First Field number to Sort on or <End>"
Begin by pressing the number of the field upon which you would
like the primary sort to be done. After doing so, the words
"First Sort Field" will appear next to the field name you chose.
The prompt at the bottom will now change to:
"Length of -field- to sort on? (1 to max)...
<Enter> for entire field"
You must now decide how many characters worth of that field you
would like to sort on. If you want the whole field, just press
<Enter>. Most of the time though, a field can be alphabetized by
the first five or six characters. (If the field is numeric, it
is suggested that you sort the entire field).
To sort on just part of the field, enter a number from 1 to the
length of the field.
If you enter a length that is shorter than the length of the field
you may choose where within the field you would like that group to
be taken. (For example, you may have entered '2' as a length
response for an eight character date field and would like to sort
on just the last two digits corresponding to the year.) Under
the field name list will appear a string of "X"'s as long as the
field you are working with. Starting from the left edge of this
row, and continuing for as long as you chose, the X's will be
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File Express(tm) User's Guide
reverse imaged. This is your sort group. The prompt will be:
XXxxxxxx
"Use <Cursor Lt> and <Cursor Rt> to position sort grouping"
then <Enter>
(The capital X's will appear reverse imaged on the screen)
To move the sort grouping to any position within the field, use
the Cursor Right and Cursor Left keys. The reversed X's group
will move right or left accordingly. When the group is at the
desired location, press <Enter>.
After doing so, the words "Characters x thru y" will appear next
to the field name. (The x and y will be the starting and ending
character positions within the field).
You will now be asked:
"Second field to sort on or <End>"
You may now continue in the same fashion as you did for the first
sort field, defining up to 10 if you wish. If you only want to
sort on the first field, press <End>.
File Express will now sort the index of your database to the
specifications you have just supplied. The sort is done entirely
in memory and thus is quite fast. If you have more records than
can be sorted at one time in memory, File Express will pull in
only as many as will fit, sort them, and then put them into a
temporary file on a disk. It will then pull in the next group,
sort them and then merge them in with the first group. This will
go on until the entire index is in sorted order. In this manner,
File Express uses disk space as virtual memory while doing the
sort. This only happens if the entire sort can't be done in
memory at one time. For databases with fewer than about 3000
records, the sort can usually be done without this extended memory
technique.
After pressing <End>, File Express will check to see if the sort
will need any overflow space. If disk space is required, then you
will be prompted to:
"Enter drive for sort workspace"
Enter the letter of a drive with some extra space to spare.
On single drive systems this must be the Data Disk, as File
Express must have access to the Database at all times. On two
drive setups, you may remove the Program Disk and insert a blank
diskette to act as the overflow if you wish. File Express will
erase all temporary work files when it is finished and will prompt
you to insert the Program Disk again when it is finished.
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File Express(tm) User's Guide
If you have a hard disk or a RAM drive, you should choose one of
these for the overflow, as the sort will proceed faster due to the
quicker disk access time.
After entering the workspace drive, or if File Express decides
that it doesn't need it, the sort keys will be pulled from the
database and will be processed by your previous choices. The
message:
"Working with Records 1 thru X"
will appear mid-screen. If your entire sort will fit into memory
then the 'X' will be the total number of records in your database.
If the sort will have to be done in stages then the 'X' will indi-
cate the number of records that are currently being sorted in mem-
ory at the current time. Above this message you will see:
"Sorting Index into Ascending order"
The word 'Ascending' may change to 'Descending' at times, depend-
ing on the type of sort being done on the particular field at that
time.
After the sort is completed, File Express will rebuild a new index
and put it on the data disk, replacing any old index that has an
extension of ".INX". During this process the message:
"Rebuilding new Index"
will appear on the screen. After the rebuild process you will be
returned to the section that invoked the sort.
SORTING INTO RECORD NUMBER ORDER
If you would like to re-sort the index of a database back into
record number order regardless of field contents, choose field
number <0> when asked which field to sort on. After doing so,
File Express will immediately start to rebuild a new index in
ascending record number order.
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File Express(tm) User's Guide
----------------------------
P R I N T R E P O R T S
----------------------------
File Express is capable of printing many different styles of
reports. Information may be arranged into any format you desire.
Subtotals and totals may be printed on any or all of the numeric
fields of a report. Calculated Fields may be defined that print
the result of mathematical operations between numeric fields or
constant values. Constant text lines may be used throughout a
report, even between field data within a line. You can even in-
clude the corresponding record numbers with each record printed.
Reports may be any width up to 220 columns, which is condensed
print on 14 inch wide paper.
To reach the Report section of File Express, press <5> while
viewing the Main Menu. A brief message will appear:
"Transferring to Report Section"
When you reach the report section you will be viewing the REPORT
MENU. This menu is split up into two sections. The upper section
has to do with printing reports and the lower section contains
options that will transfer you to the other modules of File
Express.
Report Menu
________________________________
| |
| 1 - Define REPORT FORMAT |
| |
| 2 - Go to REPORT FORMAT LIST |
| |
| 3 - Print REPORT AGAIN |
| |
|--------------------------------|
| |
| 4 - Print MAILING LABELS |
| |
| 5 - RE-SORT Index |
| |
| 6 - Return to MAIN MENU |
| |
| 7 - QUIT all Processing |
| |
|________________________________|
Selection _
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File Express(tm) User's Guide
To print a report you may now choose one of the top two options.
If you have used the Report feature of File Express before and
have saved your previous report formats then choosing option <2>
will display a list of these formats. You will be prompted to:
"Type REPORT format to use or <ENTER> for new Layout"
You may type in the name of any report on the list. After doing
so File Express will take a look at the format and, if it is com-
patible with the file you are working with, will display the lay-
out on the screen and prompt:
"Press <Enter> to use this Layout or <Esc> to go back"
If you would like to use the displayed layout, press <Enter>.
You will then be taken to the Record Choice Menu. (For instruc-
tions on how to continue from here please turn ahead to the
"Record Choice Menu" section.
If you decide that the displayed report is not what you wanted,
press <Esc> and you will be taken back to the Report Format List.
From the Report Format List, if you decide not to use any of the
displayed formats, press <Esc> to go back to the Report Menu or
<Enter> to move on to the "Create New Report Format" section.
CREATING REPORT FORMAT
After arriving here from either the Report Menu or from the
Report Format List you will be shown a list of the current field
names. If the record has two pages (over 20 fields) you may use
<PgUp> and <PgDn> to flip between the pages. A command will be
shown at the bottom of the screen:
"First field number to print on Line 1, Column 1
"<T>-text <^S>-spaces <^C>-calc <End>-end <^F>-end/formfeed"
You may now begin to specify the printing format of your report.
COLUMNAR REPORTS
A columnar report is one in which all desired fields from each
record are printed on only one line, with each successive record
being printed directly below the preceding one. Thus, all cor-
responding fields from all the records form columns going down
the page.
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File Express(tm) User's Guide
Example:
Part Name Part Number Quantity Last Reorder
_________ ___________ ________ ____________
Wheels 1324-A-7430 16 10-03-83
Tires 1344-R-2004 10 08-23-83
Jacks 2245-W-2340 20 05-30-82
Manuals 1109-E-8765 200 01-10-81
Start by entering the field number of the first field you want
printed on the report. Each time you enter a field number the
column indicator on the command line will increase by the length
of the chosen field, plus one. Also, next to each field in the
list that is selected, the line and column position that that
field will be printed on will appear. Although you may use a
field up to 50 times in a report format, only the first three
positions will be displayed next to the field name.
You may continue to enter field numbers until the column indicator
reaches a maximum value of 220. As the indicator approaches 220,
File Express will not allow you to add a field whose length would
cause the column number to exceed the maximum amount. If you have
a printer that is not capable of printing 220 columns, don't allow
the column indicator to exceed your printers maximum width capa-
bility. If any report line goes over 80 columns, the report will
be printed in condensed mode, (If your printer is capable of this
and if you have set the appropriate printer codes in the PRINTER.SET
file). When you are finished entering field numbers, press <End>.
This tells File Express that you are finished inputting the fields
for the layout. If you want to have a form-feed done after each
record is printed, for instance if you were printing invoices and
only wanted one name per invoice form per page then press <^F>
(Control-F) instead of <End> when you are finished with the report
specification.
On columnar reports, File Express will print column titles at the
top of each page with a dotted line under each title, indicating
the column length. If a field is shorter than 12 characters long.
the column title will only be as long as the field length. For
example, if you have a field named "Part Number" and the length of
this field is 4, then when the report is printed out the field
title will be truncated to "Part".
MULTI-LINE REPORTS
A multi-line report is one in which the information from each
record is presented on more than one line. Each line may contain
one or more fields from each record.
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File Express(tm) User's Guide
Example:
Johnson Electronics
P.O. Box 1190
Seattle, WA. 98104
Computer Supply
123 N.E. 245th
Martinville, SD. 60124
Micro Supply
23 Gilman Blvd
Waterton, OR. 97676
To specify a multi-line report format, begin by entering the field
numbers that you would like to be printed on the first line. When
you would like to move to the next line, simply press <Enter> by
itself. The line indicator at the bottom will increase by one and
the column indicator will re-set to zero. You may then enter the
field or fields that you would like on that line. You may enter
up to 55 lines per record.
RECORD NUMBERS
At the top of the list of field names is a Record Number field
numbered "0". If you would like to include in your report a
list of the numbers the records are stored in, choose <0> as the
desired field at any time in the report layout process. The
field takes 5 columns.
AGE OF RECORDS
If your record includes the field "DATE-" or "ORIGIN DATE-" you
may specify an "AGE" field to be printed on your report. This
field will contain the age of the record in days. This is
computed by figuring the number of days elapsed since the record
was created. (Be sure the current system date is set correctly
before printing the report.) This field takes 4 column positions.
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File Express(tm) User's Guide
CALCULATED FIELDS
New report fields may be defined to be the result of calculations
between existing numeric fields or between existing fields and
constant values. To define a "Calculated Field", press <Ctrl-C>
instead of a field number. You will then be asked to give the:
Name for Calculated Field
You may now type in up to 12 characters for the field name. After
naming the field you will be asked:
Type of numeric field (#,$)
You must now decide whether you want a "Decimal" field or a "Dollar"
format field. After making your selection you will be asked to
specify the length of the field. A calculated field may be up to
14 digits long. Dollar format fields must also be at least 4 digits
long. You will now be led through the mathematical definition of the
field. (To read a complete description of the Calculation setup
process please read the "CALCULATED FIELDS" portion of the DEFINING
NEW DATABASE section). While you are defining the field the growing
equation will be displayed near the bottom of the screen so you can
keep track of your progress. Whenever you are asked to enter the
number of the next field for the calculation, you may use <PgUp> and
<PgDn> to view both pages of a two page record and also to view any
Calculated fields that you have just defined (on a third page). The
newly defined calc fields will be numbered starting at 131, and can
be used in succeeding calc fields by using the number shown.
TEXT LINES WITHIN REPORT
Constant text lines may be entered anywhere within a report format,
either on a line by itself or between field contents within a line.
You may use text lines to label field contents if you like.
Name:
Address:
Phone:
Comments:
These text lines will be printed the same for each record. When
printing multi-line reports, it is often a good idea to make the
last line of each record format a line of dashes, asterisks or
periods.
-------------------------------------------------------------
This will make it easy to see where one record ends and the next
begins.
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File Express(tm) User's Guide
To enter text characters or lines, press <^T> instead of typing
in a field number. The command line at the bottom will read:
"Enter text for Line x Column y"
Type in the desired characters and press <Enter>. The column
indicator will then increase by the length of your text line plus
one additional space. You may enter text up to 80 characters each
time you press <^T>. Fifty text entries are permitted within a
report format.
BLANK SPACES
File Express normally prints consecutive fields with zero or one
blank space between each one. The space between any two fields may
be increased if you wish.
To tell File Express that you would like to print a blank field,
press <^S>. The command line will read:
"Length of empty field"
You may enter any number up to 60.
FINISHING UP THE REPORT FORMAT
When you have finished arranging your Report Format, press <End>.
(or <ctrl-F> if you want a form-feed done after each record printed)
You will then be asked:
"Title for Printed Report?"
Enter the report heading that you would like to have printed at
the top of each page. You may enter up to two title lines, the
second prompt line appearing after you enter the first. If you
don't want to use the second line, just press <Enter> without
typing in anything else. If you leave both title lines blank
at this time, you will be re-prompted for the report title again
before the report is printed and each time you use this format
in the future (that is, if you choose to save the format to the
disk). This feature allows you to re-use the format over and
over and still provide a different title for each report. If
you leave the tltle line blank after being re-prompted for a title,
then the title, date, and page indicator will be suppressed at the
top of each page when the report is printed.
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File Express(tm) User's Guide
COLUMN AND ROW HEADINGS
If you have specified your report format to be columnar, then the
column headings will automatically be printed across the top of
each page directly beneath the title line. The column headings
are the field names from each field chosen.
If your report format has several lines for each record (multi-
line) you may choose whether or not you would like to print the
field names at the top of each page, only on the first page, or
on none of the pages. A ten-line-per-record report will take ten
lines to print the field names. Usually this is redundant infor-
mation if printed on each page and takes a lot of room. If you
have not used constant text lines within each record, to identify
the information in the records, you may want to just print the
field headings on the first page only so as to identify the format
of the report to the reader. You may choose any of these options
from the command line:
Print Field Headings on <A>ll pages, <F>irst Page only, or <N>one?
TOTALS AND SUBTOTALS AND COUNTS
When you are printing a report you may choose to have Subtotals
and/or Totals printed on the Numeric and Calculated fields. You
may also have a Count and/or Total Count done on the string fields.
Subtotals and Counts can be generated for chosen columns each time
a specified field content changes. You may also choose to have sub-
totals printed each time part of a field changes, such as the
center two digits of a DATE field for instance.
Subtotals, Totals and Counts are printed differently depending on the
format of your report. On a columnar report, the subtotals and
totals are printed directly under the corresponding numeric col-
umns. On a multi-line report the subtotals and totals are printed
in a multi-line format, labeled with the field names.
(42)
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File Express(tm) User's Guide
Example of a Columnar Report with Subtotals, Totals and Counts:
Billing Name Customer Name Amount Due
--------------------- ------------------------- ----------
Doe, John Doe, Jane 34.89
Doe, John Doe, Jill 24.78
Doe, John Doe, John 10.00
------------------------- ----------
3 69.67
Jones, Fred Jones,Tommy 47.50
Larson, Martha Larson, Linda 246.05
Larson, Martha Larson, Martha 29.45
------------------------- ----------
2 275.50
Nelson, Willy Nelson, Willy 945.70
Thompson, Wayne Smith, Fred 34.89
Thompson, Wayne Thompson, Wayne 467.34
Thompson, Wayne Thompson, Peggy 34.23
Thompson, Wayne Thompson, Dave 3.89
------------------------- ----------
4 540.35
========================= ==========
11 1878.72
========================= ==========
(43)
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File Express(tm) User's Guide
Example of a Multi-Line report with Subtotals and Totals:
Billing Name : Doe, John Customer Name: Doe, Jane
Amount Due : 34.89
Sales Tax : 3.49
Balance Due : 38.38
........................................................
Billing Name : Doe, John Customer Name: Doe, John
Amount Due : 10.00
Sales Tax : 1.00
Balance Due : 11.00
........................................................
--------------------------------------------------------------
Subtotal: Amount Due : $ 44.89
Sales Tax : $ 4.49
Balance Due : $ 49.38
--------------------------------------------------------------
Billing Name : Jones, Fred Customer Name: Jones, Tommy
Amount Due : 47.50
Sales Tax : 4.75
Balance Due : 52.25
.........................................................
Billing Name : Larson, Martha Customer Name: Larson, Linda
Amount Due : 246.05
Sales Tax : 24.61
Balance Due : 270.66
.........................................................
Billing Name : Larson, Martha Customer Name: Larson, Martha
Amount Due : 29.45
Sales Tax : 2.95
Balance Due : 32.40
.........................................................
--------------------------------------------------------------
Subtotal: Amount Due : $ 275.50
Sales Tax : $ 27.56
Balance Due : $ 303.06
--------------------------------------------------------------
==============================================================
Total: Amount Due : $ 367.89
Sales Tax : $ 36.80
Balance Due : $ 404.69
==============================================================
(44)
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File Express(tm) User's Guide
When setting up a report that contains numeric fields you will be
asked:
Would you like to print numeric <S>ubtotals, <T>otals, <B>oth or <N>one?
Press <S> to print only Subtotals and Counts.
Press <T> to print only Totals and Counts.
Press <B> to print both Subtotals, Counts and Totals.
Press <N> if you don't want any totals at all.
You may also specify that a form feed be done after any subtotal
is printed. To do this, press <Ctrl-S> instead of <S> or <Ctrl-B>
instead of <B> in answer to the above question.
If you press <S>, <T>, or <B> you will be asked:
<A>ll fields or <S>ome)?
If you want the totals, subtotals or counts generated on every
field that will be printed in the report, press <A>.
If you only want totals, subtotals, or counts done on selected
fields, press <S>. You will then be asked:
"Enter Field Numbers you want totaled (Press <End> when Finished)"
Proceed by typing in the field number of all the numeric fields
that you want included in the totaling. As you enter each field
number it will appear near the bottom of the screen.
If you type in a field number that was not included in the report
format you will see:
"Field x is not included in the report"
When you have completed the entering of the fields to be totaled
or subtotaled, press <End>.
DETERMINING SUBTOTAL GENERATION POINTS
If you are printing subtotals, File Express will want you to:
"Enter Field number which will determine the printing
of subtotals."
You must now decide which field will be used to generate
the subtotals. This may be a Name, ID number, Date, Year, City,
State, or what have you. It is generally the same field that was
used to sort the index the last time.
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File Express(tm) User's Guide
After choosing the field you will be asked for:
"Length of <fieldname> to compare (1 to max)...<Enter> for entire field"
If you want to use the entire field as the basis for comparison
with previous records to generate subtotal points, just press
<Enter> to indicate the full length of the field. If, however,
you want to only compare part of a field, such as the day or
year portion of a DATE field, enter the number of character
positions that you would like to compare.
After doing so a row of X's will appear with a length equal
to the length of the field chosen. You may now use the
left and right cursor keys to position the highlighted
group of X's anywhere within the field that you wish.
XXxxxxxx
"Use <Cursor Lt> and <Cursor Rt> to position sort grouping"
then <Enter>
(The capital X's will appear reverse imaged on the screen)
When the group is at the desired location, press <Enter>.
DUPLICATE GROUPING
The next question to be asked will be:
"Do you want Duplicate Grouping (Y/N)?"
When printing a report with Subtotals or Counts, you can tell
File Express to only print the first occurrence of the field
that is used to generate the Subtotals or Counts. This way you
can avoid redundant repetition of the same information.
LAST NAME FIRST NAME AMOUNT
---------------------- --------------- ----------
Carpenter Donald 124.98
Barbara 23.80
Kathy 309.00
Mark 0.00
Ted 93.74
--------------- ----------
5 551.52
Williams Alex 93.84
Daniel 35.98
Zach 298.67
--------------- ----------
3 428.49
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File Express(tm) User's Guide
Answer the question with either a <Y> or <N>.
SAVING THE REPORT FORMAT
After you have specified the report format and how it will be
printed, you are asked:
"Would you like to save this Report Format (Y/N)?"
If this is only a one-time report printout then press <N>.
If you would like to be able to use your report layout again in
the future, without having to define it all over again, press <Y>.
You will then be asked for:
"Name for Report Format _______"
Enter the name, (up to eight characters), that you would like to
remember the format by. File Express will then save the layout
on the data disk with the extension of ".RPT". (Note: The way in
which File Express saves the report format has been changed as
of version 3.0. If you have any formats saved from prior
versions you will have to re-enter them again as they are not
compatible.
From now on, when you choose the Report Format List option from
the Report Menu, you will see a list of all previously saved re-
port formats. You may choose any report format that will fit
your current file structure. (If you are working with a file
that contains 10 fields and choose a report format that was
created for a 20 field file, File Express will tell you that the
report is not compatible).
RECORD CHOICE MENU
After you have completed your specification of the report format,
or have chosen a previously saved format from the Report Format
list, you will be presented with the "Record Choice Menu":
1 - Use EVERY record in file
2 - Use SOME records in file
3 - ... Redo the Report Format
USE EVERY RECORD
By pressing <1> from the Record Choice Menu you are telling File
Express that you would like to use every record within the current
file when generating your specified report.
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File Express(tm) User's Guide
USE SOME RECORDS
If you would like to be selective in your choice of which records
to include on the report, then press <2>. The list of field names
will be shown and you will be asked to indicate the kind of com-
parison you would like to make:
"<G>reater than <L>ess than <E>qual to <N>ot equal to"
Press the beginning letter of the type of comparison you would
like to make. You will then see:
"Select FIELD NUMBER to pull Records by"
You must now press the number of the field that you would like
to apply your selected comparison to. You will then be asked:
"Which <field name> would you like to choose records
<comparison>?"
You must now enter the name, value, etc., that you would like to
make the comparison with.
MIXED CASE COMPARISONS
Normally File Express will ignore the case of the comparisons being
done. For instance, searching for "Jones" will bring up "JONES"
and "jones". If you would like File Express to pay attention to the
case of the search information it looks at, then press <Ctrl-Enter>
instead of just <Enter> at the end of typing in the comparison
string.
EMBEDDED TEXT COMPARISONS
If you are doing an "<E>qual to" comparison or a "<N>ot equal to"
comparison you may specify that the entire field be looked at.
To do this, you add two periods (..), in front of the comparison
string and two peroids after the string. Such as:
..Christmas..
In this manner you could keep several category words in one field
and still be able to print reports with records containing only
a selected word in that field...or records that were <N>ot equal
to a certain word in the field.
After making your first comparison choice, the prompt line will
change to:
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File Express(tm) User's Guide
<A> - "And" Comparison <O> - "Or" Comparison <End> - Finished
With File Express you can do multiple comparisons when choosing
which records to use. You may want to print all the records
with the "LAST NAME" EQUAL to "Jones" AND the "CITY" EQUAL to
"Seattle" OR "Portland". This is very easy to do! To make an
AND or OR comparison, press either <A> or <O> from the above
prompt. You will then again see on the command line:
<G>reater than <L>ess than <E>qual to <N>ot equal to
You may now make your next choice for field number and comparison
value. Up to 10 comparisons can be made.
When you have finished, press <End> to tell File Express that you
are done and would like to print the report.
VIEW REPORT ON SCREEN, PRINTER, or DISK
After you've made your choices from the "Record Choice Menu", you
will be asked:
"Write to <S>creen, <P>rinter, or <D>isk ?"
The report generated may be viewed on the screen, printed on the
printer, or sent to a disk file which may then later be printed
or loaded into a word processor and combined with other textual
information.
SCREEN
If you would like to see how the report will look, without having
to print out a hard copy on paper, press <S> to have the report
printed on the screen. When a report is printed to the screen
File Express will continually scroll the records up the screen
with no page breaks. At the bottom of the screen will be:
"Press <Spacebar> to start and stop display"
To stop the scrolling display you may press the <Spacebar>.
Pressing the <Spacebar> again will resume the scrolling report.
You may view the entire report in this manner, or by pressing
<Esc>, you may skip any remaining portion.
Since most monitors are not capable of displaying 132 columns per
line, any report that has a format over 80 characters wide will
"wrap around" to the next line when viewed on the screen.
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File Express(tm) User's Guide
PRINTER
If you choose to print your report out on the printer, press <P>.
The screen will clear and you will be asked:
"<C>ontinous forms or <P>ause after each page"
Press <P> if you are using single sheet paper and must hand load
each piece, one at a time.
Press <C> if you are using continuous tractor feed paper.
The final act before printing is to:
"Press any key when Printer is ready"
Set the printing head of your printer even with the top edge of
the page. Turn the printer off-then back on again to be sure the
top-of-form position is set and then press any key to begin print-
ing.
File Express will print the title of the report at the top of
each page along with the current date and page number. If you
are printing a columnar report, File Express will print the column
headings next, before proceeding to print the record information.
DISK FILE
If you want to direct your report to a disk file, press <D>.
You will then be asked:
"Name for Output File ______________"
You should now enter the file name, including drive specification
and extension, into which the report will be saved. After doing
so, File Express will generate the report and send it to the
disk file.
TOTALS OR SUBTOTALS ONLY
After having indicated where you want the report to be printed,
if you are printing a report that will have totals generated
for one or more numeric fields, you will be asked to indicate
whether you want to print:
<E>ntire report, <S>ubtotals or <T>otals only?
If you press <E>, File Express will proceed to print all the
records that are to be included on the report along with any
subtotals and totals that were requested.
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File Express(tm) User's Guide
If you press <S> then the subtotals for the specified fields
will be accumulated for each group of like records and the
subtotals will be generated each time the comparison field changes.
The comparison field value will also be printed so you can see
who or what the subtotals belong to.
If you press <T>, File Express will pull all the numeric information
from the records that were to be included on the report, but
instead of printing the information to the screen or printer,
File Express will just accumulate the grand totals and then print
them out. In this manner, for example, you could see how
much your accounts receivable were without having to print an
entire report.
After you have viewed your report on the screen or have printed
it out on your printer you will be presented with several differ-
ent directions in which to continue:
________________________________
| |
| 1 - Redefine REPORT FORMAT |
| |
| 2 - Go to REPORT FORMAT LIST |
| |
| 3 - Print LAST REPORT AGAIN |
| |
|--------------------------------|
| |
| 4 - Print MAILING LABELS |
| |
| 5 - RE-SORT Index |
| |
| 6 - Return to MAIN MENU |
| |
| 7 - QUIT all Processing |
| |
|________________________________|
Selection _
Press <1> if you decide that you need to redo your report format
or if you want to create any additional layouts. You will be
taken back to the beginning of the report format definition.
Press <2> if you would like to go back to the list of previously
defined and saved formats.
Press <3> if you would like to print the last report again.
You will be asked:
Write to <S>creen, <P>rinter, or <D>isk?
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File Express(tm) User's Guide
If you have viewed the report on the screen and would now like
to go ahead and print it out on paper, or if you would like to
print out an additional copy of the report, press <P>. Any
comparison modes and comparison values that were just used to
select records by will still be in effect during the next print-
out. (If you want to change these values, you must have saved
your format after creating it and need to go back to the Report
Format List in order to be able to go back through the Record
Choice Menu.)
If you would like to send the report to a disk file for future
printing or rearranging by a text editor or word processor,
press <D>. You will then be asked for the Output File name and
the report that would print on the printer will be sent to a
disk file instead.
From this point you may also transfer to the Label, Sort, or Main
Menu sections of File Express. Just press the corresponding menu
number.
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