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1992-09-21
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WinGRAB Data Base (WinGDB)
Operation
Copyright 1991 by Paul Mayer
and ZPAY Payroll Systems, Inc.
Contents
1 Requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
2 Install WinGDB . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
2.1 Put WinGDB Icon In Windows . . . . . . . . 2
3 How To Use WinGDB . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
3.1 How To Start WinGDB . . . . . . . . . . . 3
3.2 How To Add Names & Addresses . . . . . . . 3
3.3 How To Print Envelopes . . . . . . . . . . 3
3.4 How To Paste The Address For Your Word
Processor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
3.5 How To Print Labels . . . . . . . . . . . 4
3.6 How To Dial Phone . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
4 Starting WinGDB . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
5 Files in WinGDB . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
6 Adding Entries To The WinGDB Database . . . . . 6
6.1 Entering Records Using The "Add"
Selection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
6.2 Entering Records Using The "Import"
Selection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
7 Finding Existing Records . . . . . . . . . . . 7
8 Editing Existing Records . . . . . . . . . . . 9
8.1 Filtering Records . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
9 Printing Records On Your Envelopes . . . . . . 9
9.1 The Normal Mode. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
9.2 The Quick Mode. . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
9.3 Address Formats . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
10 Pasting To The Clipboard . . . . . . . . . . 11
11 Printing Labels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
12 Dialing Telephone . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
13 Exporting Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
13.1 Mail Merge Using Exported Data . . . . 13
13.1.1 Microsoft Word for Windows . . . . 14
13.1.2 Ami Pro . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
13.1.3 WordPerfect for Windows . . . . . 15
14 Status . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
15 Anomalies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
16 Upgrade From Older Versions . . . . . . . . 15
i
1 Requirements
Windows 3.0 or newer running in the 386 Enhanced mode.
WinGRAB 1.0 or newer to print envelopes.
2 Install WinGDB
2.1 Put WinGDB Icon In Windows
* Start Windows
* Open the Program Manager Window
Add a program item to a group with Program Manager
- Open the group window for the group you want to add
the icon.
You may want this group to be your word processing
group or the group where WinGRAB has been placed.
- Choose "New" from the "File" menu.
The "New Program Object" dialog box appears.
- Select "Program Item" and choose "OK".
- Type the description you want to be displayed under
the icon.
Example: "WinGDB".
- Type the path and file name of the program.
Examples (if your GRAB Plus files are on your "C"
drive in a directory named "GRABPLUS"):
Type: "C:\GRABPLUS\WINGDB.EXE".
- Choose "Change Icon".
The icon will be displayed in the "Select Icon"
box.
- NOTE: An icon will automatically appear for the
program "WINGDB.EXE", since its icon is built-in to
this program file.
- Choose "OK".
The "Program Item Properties" box appears.
- Choose "OK".
The dialog box disappears and your icon is
displayed in the group box.
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3 How To Use WinGDB
3.1 How To Start WinGDB
* Add WinGDB to one of your Windows program groups.
(This needs to be done when you install WinGDB. You need
to do this only once.)
- Click WinGDB Icon
3.2 How To Add Names & Addresses
* Start WinGDB from your Windows program group.
* Select Records then Add.
- Type in the name, address and phone numbers.
- Select Ok to save.
3.3 How To Print Envelopes
* Start WinGDB from your Windows program group.
(Omit this step if you remain in WinGDB after adding new
records.)
* Select Records then Search to find record
- Type the name of the record you want to print to an
envelope.
or
- Move highlite bar to address to print.
(Press a key that corresponds to the first letter
of the last name of the record you are looking for
to move the highlite bar close.)
- Press F7, F8 or F9 to call WinGRAB to print the
address.
3.4 How To Paste The Address For Your Word Processor
* Start WinGDB from your Windows program group.
(Omit this step if you remain in WinGDB after adding new
records.)
* Select Records then Search to find record
- Type the name of the record you want to print to an
envelope.
or
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- Move highlite bar to address to print.
(Press a key that corresponds to the first letter
of the last name of the record you are looking for
to move the highlite bar close.)
- Press Ctrl+F7, Ctrl+F8 or Ctrl+F9 to paste the
address to the clipboard.
- Enter or return to your word processor and press
Shift+Ins to paste the address into your word
processor.
3.5 How To Print Labels
* Start WinGDB from your Windows program group.
(Omit this step if you remain in WinGDB after adding new
records.)
* Select Print/paste from the menu.
- Complete the information in the label printer setup
dialog box.
- Select Ok to print.
3.6 How To Dial Phone
* Start WinGDB from your Windows program group.
(Omit this step if you remain in WinGDB after adding new
records.)
* Move browser pointer to record you want to dial.
* Select Dial from the menu.
- Select the phone number from those available in the
dialog box.
- Select Dial to place call.
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4 Starting WinGDB
With WinGDB, you can maintain files of names and addresses for
use with WinGRAB the Windows Envelope Addressor, paste addresses
into your word processor or print labels for mass mailing
projects. This program is called into use by clicking the WinGDB
icon in your Windows program group where it has been installed.
The first time you are using WinGDB, you must enter some
information in the configuration section of the main menu. Click
the Configure option and open the Configure dialog box.
You must enter the location of your WINGRAB.EXE program in this
dialog box. This must be the full drive, path name and program
name of WinGRAB. If you have WinGRAB in a directory called
"GRABPLUS" on your C: drive you would enter this as follows:
C:\GRABPLUS\WINGRAB.EXE
You must also let WinGDB know if you plan to use this program in
a network environment. The default is Single User for non-
network use. If you select either of the other two choices you
should exit and re-enter the program after saving your
configuration. After entering the location of the WINGRAB.EXE
program and making any changes to the network information, click
Ok.
The "Force CASE" selection will force the printing of envelopes
and labels to the US Post Office desired format. This is all
uppercase letters, no comma in the City, State and ZIP line and
double spaces between the City, State and ZIP.
You will then Click Configure again and Click "Save setup as
default" to save your configuration. Remember, if you changed
the network information, you should exit the program and re-enter
now.
5 Files in WinGDB
You may have different files for use in WinGDB. The file name
selection may be made by choosing the Open selection of the Files
pulldown. A Windows open file pick list will display WinGDB
".ix" files for your selection. You may create new files by
typing in a descriptive file name of up to eight characters. The
file name that you are using will be displayed in the title bar
of the main window of WinGDB.
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6 Adding Entries To The WinGDB Database
The first time you use WinGDB, you will need to add the records
you want to have for printing envelopes or labels.
There are two ways to enter records into WinGDB:
* Use the "Add" selection of the "Records" pulldown and
manually type in your records.
* Use the "Import" selection of the "File" pulldown to bring
in existing records from another database system.
6.1 Entering Records Using The "Add" Selection
Select "Add" from the "Records" pulldown. The "Add Record"
record form will be displayed.
The entry sessions of the database are built in a simple style to
make it as easy as possible to add records, delete records or to
edit existing records. All menu items may be selected by using
the mouse pointer or the underlines characters in the menu item
names.
6.2 Entering Records Using The "Import" Selection
If you have been using another database system, you probably have
a list of names and addresses you might want to use in WinGDB.
Most database systems can export data in a format known as "comma
delimited." Here are two sample records:
"Paul","Mayer","2526 69th Ave So","St. Petersburg","FL","33712"
"John","Doe","123 N. State Street","Chicago","IL","60601"
-------------------------------------------------
| IMPORTANT |
| Please be sure your exported data is written |
| with the"," (double quote comma double quote) |
| between pieces of data. WinGDB expects this |
| when it imports data. Also, we advise you to |
| back up your WINGDB.DAT (data file) and |
| WINGDB.IX (index file) before you start |
| importing data. |
-------------------------------------------------
The first step after selecting the Import selection is to pick
the file you want to import. This is done with a standard Windows
file pick list. The default file extension is the "ASC" so all
files with a <filename>.ASC name will be displayed. If your file
was exported with a different file extension, you can change the
Windows file selector.
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After selecting a file, click OK and you will move to the data
import screen which tells WinGDB what order the fields are in.
If the file you selected is not in the standard comma delimited
format as show above, WinGDB will detect this and not allow you
to go to the next step.
The data import dialog screen has eighteen data items or "fields"
for the record format and a place to tell WinGDB how many fields
or data items are in one line of the file you intend to import.
You must first examine your exported data format to obtain the
needed information for importing. WinGDB will display the first
line of your file for your examination.
Using the above example, we count six data items or fields in the
line. Also note the location of the data items. The First Name
is item one, the Last Name is item two and so on. You will need
to enter the locations by number in the dialog screen.
If we used the above example in importing to WinGDB, our dialog
screen would have the following entries:
0 Salutation 0 Home phone
2 Last name 0 Ext
1 First name 0 Work Phone
0 Company 0 Ext
3 Address 0 FAX phone
0 Address 0 Ext
4 City 0 Other phone
5 State 0 Ext
6 Zip 0 Filters
0 Country 6 Total number fields
Notice that we left zeros in the fields there was no data for.
We would also skip numbers of and data items that we did not want
to import. An example is if we had social security numbers and
payroll data, we would not enter the position numbers for those
items.
You are also limited to 40 data fields in a line of your data
file. This is quite ample as you noted above, the sample file
only had 6 data fields.
7 Finding Existing Records
WinGDB has a built in "browser" for quickly locating records. You
can move the highlite bar through the records until you locate
the one you are looking for. If you press a character while the
browser screen is visible, the browser pointer bar will move to
the first name that starts with the character you pressed. You
can then browse the records using the browser commands explained
below.
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The records displayed by the browser may be sorted by name,
company or ZIP code. Changing this is done through the File
pulldown menu.
The following keys are associated with the browser screen:
<Up>, <Down>
Move the browser pointer bar up or down one row.
<Ctrl+Home>, Ctrl+End>
Move the browser pointer to the first or last data record.
<PgUp>, <PgDn>
Move one page up or down.
<Left>, <Right>
Scroll horizontally by one column.
<Home>, <End>
Scroll horizontally to the beginning or the end of the browser
rows.
<Ctrl+Left>, <Ctrl+Right>
Scroll horizontally by one page.
<+>
Refresh the browser display. (Useful in multi-user or multi-
tasking situations.)
You may also use the Search selection of the Records pulldown to
find records.
The records you enter into WinGDB are indexed for easy retrieval
when needed. When you retrieve records, you can immediately
print them on envelopes or you can edit them for use now or
later.
The records are indexed for the name default using the last name
and the first name of the individual entered. If there is no
person in a record and only a company name is entered, then the
index will be taken from the company name. The second index is
by company name and the third index is by ZIP code. These
indexes are used to display the records in the sort order that
you desire as well as for printing and exporting of records and
searching functions.
To search a record, the selection is under the Records pulldown.
The search Dialog box only has four fields active. Those fields
are, Last name, First name, Company and ZIP. The Last and First
name fields are to be used when you have the records displayed in
name sort order, the company field when sorted by company and the
ZIP filed when by ZIP.
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You don't need to enter the full name to find the record. This
means if there is a "Paul Mayer" entered, you could type in just
part of the name, "may" for example, and the program will
retrieve the record. If there were a "John May" in the file,
this record would appear. You can then use the browser screen to
fine tune your search.
8 Editing Existing Records
Point to the record you want to edit with the browser pointer and
select "Change" from the Records pulldown or press enter or
double click the record in the browser screen to edit. You can
edit any of the entries in the fields, or enter information in
empty fields.
8.1 Filtering Records
You can filter records for "Batch Printing". You have the
availability of five different "filters" for each record. With
these filters, you can "browse" through the records matching a
selected filter. The browser screen will only display the
records matching a filter entered as the filter criteria. This
is similar to having different data files but keeping them in one
file.
The default "filter" is an asterisk (*), meaning all available
records will be selected for display. Note: if you specify a
filter not used in any record, WinGDB will not display any
records.
The filters are turned on and off by the "Filter" pulldown. In
the Filter pulldown the selection "Filter on/off" will display a
check mark if the filter is turned on. The "Set filter
character" in the Filter pulldown will allow you to enter the
character to match the characters entered in the individual
records.
9 Printing Records On Your Envelopes
When you have the record marked on the screen by the browser
pointer, press the function key for the printing format you want
to use (F7, F8 or F9 keys). The address will be formatted for
printing by WinGRAB, passed to the clipboard and WinGRAB will be
called into action. There are two methods of envelope printing.
9.1 The Normal Mode.
The normal mode uses the keys F7, F8 and F9 for printing.
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The normal mode will pass the address to WinGRAB and load the
program so you can edit or make changes before actually printing
the address.
9.2 The Quick Mode.
The quick mode uses the keys Shift+F7, Shift+F8 and Shift+F9 for
printing.
The quick mode will print the address in the background using
WinGRAB's default settings. You will not see WinGRAB pop up in
this mode.
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9.3 Address Formats
Addresses can be formatted for printing in three different styles
by using the function keys F7, F8, and F9. The formats are as
follows:
The F7 Key Printing Format
------------------------
NAME FIRST ----->Mr. Paul Mayer
COMPANY NEXT --->ZPAY Payroll Systems
2526 69th Avenue South
St. Petersburg, FL 33712
The F8 Key Printing Format
-------------------------
COMPANY FIRST -->ZPAY Payroll Systems
NAME NEXT ------>Mr. Paul Mayer
2526 69th Avenue South
St. Petersburg, FL 33712
The F9 Key Printing Format
-------------------------
COMPANY FIRST -->ZPAY Payroll Systems
ATTN LINE ------>ATTN: Paul Mayer
2526 69th Avenue South
St. Petersburg, FL 33712
10 Pasting To The Clipboard
WinGDB will also paste the address into the clipboard for
inserting into your word processor. The F7, F8 and F9 formatting
follows in the same style for this option also by adding the Ctrl
key to the combination. Ctrl+F7, Ctrl+F8 and Ctrl+F9 are the
commands.
After pasting to the clipboard you can enter your word processor,
place the cursor on the position you want the address and press
Shift+Ins to paste the address in.
11 Printing Labels
The label printing selection of the "Print/paste" pulldown is a
powerful label printing system.
This feature lets you take the data files and print labels on
your LaserJet, DeskJet or impact printer.
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In order to print labels on your printer, you need to take a few
steps in preparation before the actual printing may take place.
You need to make some decisions, depending on which labels you
use.
* Do you want to use the printer's default fonts?
* Do you want to use soft fonts or possibly fonts from a
font cartridge?
* Do you want the first line of the address to have a font
different from the other lines in the address?
* Do you want to print your labels according to your WinGDB
filter?
* Do you want to print all or a selected range of records?
The "Printer setup" dialog window will allow you to make these
choices.
If you are using soft fonts with our ID 80 and ID 90 method, you
should use the Elfring download program that we supplied. An
example is to add lines to your AUTOEXEC.BAT file that will load
the needed soft fonts to your printer when you start the
computer. An example is:
c:\laserjet\download c:\hv08r#us.sfp 80
c:\laserjet\download c:\hv10r#us.sfp 90
Note in the above example, the download program is loaded in a
directory called "laserjet" on our C: drive. The font files
shown are a 10 point and an 8 point font. Since the ID 90 is
used by the first line of our addresses, we have downloaded the
larger font using the ID of 90 and the smaller as 80.
In the dialog window, you will notice that the code to select the
fonts has already been entered as a default. These codes may be
replaced to select fonts from cartridges if you're familiar with
the necessary selection codes for your cartridge.
The F7, F8 and F9 format options follow through in printing
labels also.
After making the selections in the dialog window you may start
printing by clicking Ok.
12 Dialing Telephone
You must have a Hayes compatible modem in order for WinGDB to
dial the phone for you.
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The default configuration may need to be changed. Under the
Configure pulldown is a sub-selection for Modem setup. The
standard defaults are COM1, 1200 baud, no parity, one stop bit,
25 millisecond delay and ATDT as the init string and ATH0 as the
reset string. All of these may be changed. If you do change
them you should save the configuration into WINGDB.EXE as your
default.
In order to dial a phone number you should move the browser
pointer to the record that you want to dial a telephone number
for. Then select Dial from the menu. A dialog box will appear
with all of the available phone numbers listed for the selected
record. Using the push buttons, select the number you wish to
dial. Select Dial or press enter to dial the phone.
After you hear the phone ringing or your party has answered, pick
up the hand set and press enter or click Ok. The next Dialog box
asks if the party answered. Click Yes or press enter if they
did. This will start the call logging to disk. After you have
completed the call, press Alt+H to let WinGDB know the phone was
hung up and the call is complete. WinGDB will produce a tone
approximately every 20 seconds the call is in progress to remind
you to "Hang up" or Alt+H the connection to complete the logging.
If you forget, the next time you go to call or try to exit
WinGDB, a Dialog will tell you it's closing your CDS file.
WinGDB write information in the CDS (Call Data Standard) format
for logging calls. It uses the file name of the work file with a
CDS file extension. And example would be WINGDB.CDS for the
default WINGDB file name. This data may be read and printed by
using your word processor as well as CDS phone analyzing
programs.
13 Exporting Data
The Export selection under the File pulldown will allow you to
export data for use by other programs. The data will be exported
into the universal comma delimited format as described above.
Exported data may be selected by the filter as well as a record
range selection. You may also designate the sort order by name,
company or zip code.
13.1 Mail Merge Using Exported Data
When exporting data to an ASCII file you have an option to select
"Mail Merge format". This will add a header line to the top of
the file that designates the order of the data fields. This line
will look like:
"Sal","Last","First","Company","Address1","Address2","City","State","
Zip","Country","Work","WorkEx","Home","HomeEx","Fax","FaxEx","Other","
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OtherEx","Filter"
These "names" are representative of the data fields in the
exported file.
Sal - The salutation, eg. Mr., Mrs., etc.
Last - The last name
First - The first name
Company - The company name
Address1 - The first line of the address
Address2 - The second line of an address
City - The city name
State - The state name
Zip - The ZIP code
Country - The country name
Work - The work phone number
WorkEx - The work phone extension
Home - The home phone number
HomeEx - The home phone extension
Fax - The fax phone number
FaxEx - The fax phone extension
Other - The other phone number
OtherEx - The other phone extension
Filter - The filter characters
13.1.1 Microsoft Word for Windows
This file is ready as is for use in Microsoft Word for Windows
for mail merge or form letter operations.
To open a document for use with this file, refer to "Procedures
for Form Letters" in the manual. When creating the data file
pointer, you must point to this file. Press Ctrl+F9 and type in:
C:\GRABPLUS\WINGDB.ASC
If the file is in a directory and drive different than above,
change as needed. The Ctrl+F9 key is then used for inserting the
fields above such as First, Last, Company and so on. Then when
printing, select the Merge print option.
13.1.2 Ami Pro
Ami Pro can use the file with the help of a "description file".
We have supplied you with a Ami Pro description file named
AMI_MM.SAM for this purpose.
When you specify WINGDB.ASC as your data file, Ami Pro detects
that it is not the normal Ami Pro data file and prompts for the
description file name in a dialog box. (Normal Ami Pro data
files use .SAM as a file extension.)
- 14 -
13.1.3 WordPerfect for Windows
WordPerfect for Windows can also use an ASCII file for it's mail
merge data file. After creating a primary file to merge with the
data file WINGDB.ASC follow the information in the manual for
ASCII Delimited Text (DOS) Files.
Define " (double quote mark) as the beginning field delimiter and
", (double quote mark and a comma) as the end field delimiter.
Then define a Carriage Return as the end record delimiter.
(There is no need to define a beginning record delimiter.)
Don't forget to select ASCII Delimited Text (DOS) as your data
file type.
14 Status
The Status selection of the File pulldown will display the number
of records in your data file, the number of deleted records and
the file size. It will also display the user number (task
number).
15 Anomalies
Black Icon - Occasionally the icon will appear "black" when the
program is minimized or in the About box. A black icon is caused
when saving the setup into the WINGDB.EXE file. If you exit the
program and then re-enter the icon will be normal again.
16 Upgrade From Older Versions
If you're upgrading from older versions of WinGDB, you should
delete the index files from your WinGDB files. These are the
files that have a file extension of "IX". The default WinGDB
index file for example is:
WINGDB.IX
Then when you run WinGDB, it will create a new index file using
all three of the indexes. If you don't do this, you will not be
able to use the files. WinGDB can find the default file, if you
created other files, when opening the "Open File" Dialog box, you
must enter the file names as our lookup searches by the IX
extension.
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