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Text File | 1994-03-05 | 36KB | 720 lines

╒═══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╕ │ Printing Labels, Letters and Lists │ ╘═══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╛ In order to print, a database must first be selected. See "Getting Started" in the on-line documentation. A Filter and/or Index may also be set. See "Creating a Filter" and "Creating/Selecting Index Files" in the on-line documentation. To start, select "Print Labels/Letters/Lists" in the main menu. A sub-menu will then appear with selections A through N. Some are not always available depending on the template type specified with selection "C) Select Template Type: XXXXXX". A) Template: nnnnnnnn cc/ttt ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── This selection will allow you to edit the name of the template. The "nnnnnnnn" is the name of the template that can be edited. Two or more templates can have the same name. The "cc" represents the current template number. The "ttt" represents the total number of templates available. To move from one template to another press <PgUp>, <PgDn> or <Alt-L>. What is a Template? Templates allow you to custom design your printout. Field macros are placed in templates to represent field data when printing. A template can contain your own text such as "See inside for special offer!", macros such as {LAST} for "last name" which represents field content from fields in your record(s), printer macros for enhancing text and special macros for other purposes. These macros are sometimes referred to as merge codes. Macros are explained in more detail later in this section. B) Edit/Add/Delete Templates ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── This selection will present another sub-menu allowing you to select "Edit", "Add", "Delete", or "Import". A) Edit ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────── This selection will allow you to edit the current template. The editing commands are the same as for memo fields. See "Edit Memo Fields" in "Editing and Adding Records" in the on-line documentation. Instruction for "Filling in a Template" will follow later in this section. B) Add ────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── This selection will add a blank template record. A template record consists of the template settings (explained later in this section) and the template itself. Also when adding a new template the current template is copied over to the new one. This would be useful if you wanted to make another template simular to an existing one but did not want to re-type it all. Simply go to that template before executing this command. C) Delete ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────── This selection will delete the current template. Before deleting, you will be asked "Are you sure?" to safe-guard against accidental erasure. D) Import ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────── This selection will present a list of files from the current directory. They are sorted on file name extension. Selecting any file will replace the current template with the file. The selected file must be less than 64,000 bytes in size and not currently in use. If you are upgrading from DDLabel, you can import the LBL (label), LTR (letter), and LST (master list) files (templates) eliminating the need to retype them into the new templates. If a template is imported, it only needs to be imported one time and not every time it is selected. C) Select Template Type: XXXXXX ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── This selection allows you to select the type of template you wish it to be. The three choices are Letter, Label, or List. Selections "E" through "L" will change depending on the type of template. D) Labels across ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── This selection will appear only for Label templates. You can answer 1 to 9 to print up to 9 labels across. E) Spaces between labels ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── This selection will appear only for Label templates if printing more than 1 label across. This defines the number of spaces between each label. The actual width in inches will depend on the pitch your printer is set at i.e. if your printer is set to pica you will be printing 10 characters per inch (cpi). F) Label width in spaces ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── This selection will appear only for Label templates. This defines the width in spaces of the labels being used. The label width is going to vary depending on the pitch or cpi (characters per inch) used. If the label being used is 3 1/2 inches wide, the label width in spaces will be as follows: USING THIS PITCH CHARACTERS PER 3.5 INCHES Pica (10 cpi) 10 X 3.5 = 35 Elite (12 cpi) 12 X 3.5 = 42 Condensed (17 cpi) 17 X 3.5 = 59.5 (60) G) Lines per label ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── This selection will appear only for Label templates. This defines the number of lines to make each label. Example: If you are using 1" or 15/16" high labels, this should be set to 6 regardless of how many printable lines are in the template. This is assuming that your printer is set to printing 6 lines per inch which is the default setting for most printers. If you specify a number less than the number of printable lines in the template file you will be notified that this setting "Must be at least ----> X", where X is the number of printable lines in the template. This does not include the non-printable lines in the beginning of the template that are preceded with the "*" character or are left blank. IMPORTANT: Laser labels are NOT the same as copier labels. Laser labels have a top and bottom margin of approximately 1/2". This is because laser printers can only print 10" on a page. Copy labels use the full 11" on a page. The maximum allowable number of printable lines in a label template is 20 if printing 2 or more labels across. This should impose no problem since a label over 20 lines is rare. To go over 20 lines per label, print only 1 across. G) Lines per record ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── This selection will appear only for List templates and works the same as it does for labels. H) Sheet Feeder? (Y/N) ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── This selection will appear only for Label and List templates. If you are using a single sheet feed printer such as a laser printer as apposed to a continuous forms printer, select Yes for this option. You can use this feature on continuous paper if you would like to customize your printout. I) Skip lines top of page ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── This selection will appear only if answering Yes to "Sheet Feeder?". One purpose of this would be to properly align a sheet of labels to start printing on the right line. J) Labels per page ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── This selection will appear only for Label templates and only if answering Yes to "Sheet Feeder?". This command is needed to properly eject the page after printing the specified number of labels. If you are using, for example, 2-across by 10 down labels (20 labels per page) then this number should be set to 20 to use all 20 labels on the page. J) Records per page ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── This selection will appear only for List templates and only if answering Yes to "Sheet Feeder?". If, for example, your master list template uses three lines per record and your paper is 8 1/2" x 11" (66 lines) then this could be set to 20 and still have 3 lines at the top and bottom of each page. K) 1 or X for each record ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── This selection will appear only for Label templates and only if printing more than 1 label across. The X is the number of labels being printed across. This command will print one row of labels from the same record with the next row of labels from the next record and so on with each row of labels (up to 9-across) all being the same record. L) Print All/Part of Database ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── This selection will allow you to print all or part of the records in the database. If the record pointer is at the beginning of the file, all records will be printed. If the record pointer is somewhere between the beginning and the end of the database, only the records from that position to the end of the database will be printed. The "Start at first record" selection in the next sub-menu will allow you to move the record pointer to the first record in the database if iit is not already there. Filters are often used while printing to be able to print only the records meeting the specifications set forth in the Filter. See "Creating a Filter" in the on-line documentation. Index files are often used while printing to be able to print the records in the order of the Controlling Index file. If, for example, the Controlling Index file was indexed on "last name", the records will be printed in order of "last name". See "Creating/Selecting Index Files" in the on-line documentation. Prior to printing labels with this command, the next command should be used first to assure proper alignment of the labels or fields before printing the database. A good test would be to print 3 rows of labels or 3 records if printing a master list or 1 letter if printing letters. M) Print Only Current Record ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── This selection will allow you to print more than 1 label, letter, or list entry for any one record. Enter the "Quantity to print" and press <Enter>. ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── Before the printing begins, another sub-menu will appear with the following commands: A) Print Labels/Letters/Lists B) Zip Bulk Labels C) Zip+4 Bulk Labels D) Carrier Route Bulk Labels E) Set Printer F) Start at first record G) Print every Nth record H) Pause every Nth record I) Display count? (Y/N) A) Print Labels/Letters/Lists ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── Make this selection when ready to start printing. If you want to print Bulk labels, see the next three selections in this sub-menu. Select this command after first verifying the other selections in this sub-menu from E) to I). If printing a Master List, a "header" will print on the first page stating the name of the database and Today's date. You may also want to note any Filter that was set or index file that was active at the time the list was printed. B) Zip Bulk Labels ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── This selection will appear only for Label templates if the database is indexed on the zip code as the primary index key and "1 or X for each record" is set to 1. If you have a field assigned as the carrier route field and the secondary index field is the carrier route field, you will be asked if you want to include qualifying carrier route records and/or non-qualifying carrier route records in the mailing. If your zip code field length is 10 or 12 characters in length, you will be asked if you want to include records with a 9 or 11 digit zip code. You will also be asked if you want to: A) Sort for 3rd Class B) Sort for 2nd Class The only difference between 3rd class and 2nd class is that 3rd class is sorted in groups of 10 or more qualifying pieces and 2nd class is sorted in groups of 6 or more qualifying pieces. Qualifying 5-digit pieces are printed first. The "|" character will be printed on the right margin of the first three lines of a label whenever the zip code changes. After all qualifying 5-digit pieces are printed, qualifying 3-digit pieces are printed. These are comprised of all the records that did not qualify as a 5-digit zip code but do qualify as a 3-digit zip code (first 3 digits of the zip code are the same). For these labels, the "*" is printed at the right margin of the first three lines of the label whenever the first 3 digits of the zip code changes. After all qualifying 3-digit pieces are printed, qualifying State pieces are printed. These are comprised of all the records that did not qualify for 5-digit or 3-digit but do qualify for a State. For these labels, the "#" is printed at the right margin of the first three lines of the label whenever the State changes. After all qualifying State pieces are printed, Mixed State pieces are printed. These are comprised of all the records that did not qualify as 5-digit, 3-digit, or State. No character is printed in the right margin of these labels. The "right margin" mentioned above is the label width i.e. if the label width in spaces is set to 35, the zip code or state change character (|, *, or #) will be printed in the 35th column on the label. Below is a sample with the "|" printed in the 35th column. ┌─────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ Mrs. Jane Smith | │ │ 123 Main Street | │ │ Anytown, ST 77777 | │ └─────────────────────────────────────────┘ The quantities of labels for each zip code is given in the Zip Code Report along with totals on 3-digit zip codes and states. C) Zip+4 Bulk Labels ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── This selection works the same as the "Zip Bulk Labels" above except that only records with a zip+4 zip code will be printed. The assigned zip code field will need to be 10 or 12 characters in length. If the assigned zip code is 12 characters in length or you have another 2 character field assigned as the Delivery Point field, you are asked if you want to include records with 9 digit zip codes. You will also be asked if you want to: A) Sort for 3rd Class B) Sort for 2nd Class The only difference between 3rd class and 2nd class is that 3rd class is sorted in groups of 10 or more qualifying pieces and 2nd class is sorted in groups of 6 or more qualifying pieces. If you have a field assigned as the carrier route field and the secondary index field is the assigned carrier route field, you will be asked if you want to include qualifying carrier route records and/or non-qualifying carrier route records in the mailing. D) Carrier Route Bulk Labels ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── This selection is different from the Zip and Zip+4 Bulk Labels selections in that only records with a carrier route are included. The secondary index field must be the assigned carrier route field. You will be asked if you want to include non-qualifying carrier route records in the mailing. Qualifying carrier route pieces are printed first. These are comprised of 10 or more records from any zip code with the same carrier route. The "|" character will be printed on the right margin of the 2nd and 3rd lines of a label whenever the route changes. If you answered Yes to printing non-qualifying carrier route records, they will be prined after all qualifying carrier route pieces are printed. For these labels, the "*" is printed at the right margin of the 2nd and 3rd lines of the label whenever the first 3 digits of the zip code changes. E) Set Printer ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── If a printer has been installed, this selection will allow you to set your printer before printing Labels, Letters or Lists. See "General Setup" in the on-line documentation for instruction on installing and selecting printer. These same printer commands could be put in your templates as printer macros, however this is not recommended for some printer commands. For example, the code for setting the printer to landscape mode (laser printers only) would only need to be set once before printing. Unless the printing type or style needs to be changed from one line to the next, it is best to use this command to set the printer instead of using printer macros in the template. After selecting a printer command the following box will open: Direct output to: ─────────────────────────────────────────────────── See Appendix B in the on-line documentation for further instruction in what to enter in this box. This is put in the appendix because the instuctions are the same for three other locations in this program. F) Start at first record ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── This selection can be made only if you selected "Print All/Part of Database" from the prior sub-memu, and only if the record pointer is not at the beginning of the file. If this prompt is currently No, the printing will begin with the current record and work forward to the end of the database. If the answer to this is Yes, the printing will begin with the first logical record in the database. Once the answer is changed to Yes, the record pointer will be located to the top of the file (first logical record in database) and will not be able to be moved back without going back to "Edit/Add Records". G) Print every Nth record ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── This selection can be made only if you selected "Print All/Part of Database" from the prior sub-memu. This will allow you to print every 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, etc.. This would allow you to do a test mailing before a complete mailing. H) Pause every Nth record ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── This selection will pause the printing process after every Nth record is printed. After pausing, simply press any key to continue. This is repeated until all records in the database have been printed. I) Display count? (Y/N) ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── If you answer Yes, "Printing xxx of yyy" will be displayed on the screen where xxx is the number of records printed and yyy is the total to be printed. This will keep you informed of where you are in the printing process. It is optional in case you don't want the program to take the time to count the records before printing. If you are sending the output to a text file, there is no way of knowing where you are in the printing process without using this feature. Direct output to: ─────────────────────────────────────────────────── This box will will appear before printing with selections A) to D). See Appendix B in the on-line documentation for further instruction in what to enter in this box. This is put in the appendix because the instuctions are the same for three other locations in this program. ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── Printing Postcards and Envelopes on a Laser Printer There are three settings needed to print postcards and envelopes besides answering Yes to the Sheet Feeder option: 1) "Labels per page" must be set to 1. 2) "Skip lines top of page" should be set to about 22. The special macro, {@SKIPx}, set at 22 may instead be used in the template. 3) {@MARGINx} should be set to about 50 for a legal size envelope and 70 for a 3 1/2" x 5" postcard. These settings depend on the envelope(s) or postcard(s) being fed length-wise into the printer, centered, and the printer is in landscape mode. Also, if you are printing more envelopes or postcards than your laser will take at one time, you will want to use "Pause every Nth records" to reload your laser after printing a certain number of records. Filling in a Template ─────────────────────────────────────────────── Provided with DDFile is a sample template. It can be viewed and/or edited by selecting "Edit/Add/Delete Templates" and then "Edit". Notice that the field names are bound by the left ({) and right (}) curly braces. These are referred to as Field Macros. They must be spelled correctly or you will get an error message saying the macro is not valid. The macros in this template match the fields in the SAMPLE.DBF database file. If a Macro is on a line by itself in a template and the field content that the Macro represents is empty, that line will be ignored in the printout. This eliminates blank lines in labels. If the field content is empty and the Field Macro is not on a line by itself, only the Field Macro will be ignored. The rest of the line will be printed. <Alt-F>ield Macros ───────────────────────────────────────────── Field macros are the names of the fields enclosed in the left ({) and right (}) curly braces. The names of the fields may be displayed by pressing <Alt-F>. Selecting any field will type out the field enclosed in the left and right curly braces at the current cursor location. Most of your fields will have extra spaces at the end of the field. If you want these spaces truncated (cut-off), place an asterisk (*) after the left curly brace i.e. {*FIRST}. Note that this will only work on character type fields. Another character you could use instead of the "*" is the "$". This will truncate any blank spaces off the field plus eliminate a trailing space for separation if the field is empty. The following example output assume that the FIRST and LAST fields are 20 characters in length {FIRST} {MI} {LAST} = John J Jones {*FIRST} {MI} {LAST} = John J Jones {$FIRST}{$MI}{$LAST} = John J Jones If the middle initial field is empty: {*FIRST} {MI} {LAST} = John Jones {$FIRST}{$MI}{$LAST} = John Jones The last example eliminates the space after the middle initial. Note that there are no spaces between the macros using the "$". Date Fields ─────────── When printing a date field, you can insert an "!" at the end of the date field macro to convert 01/01/93 to January 1, 1993. If the date field is REC_DATE the field macro would be {REC_DATE!}. If the date field is empty nothing will be printed. <Alt-S>pecial Macros ─────────────────────────────────────────── Special macros are described below. They may be displayed on the screen by pressing <Alt-S>. Selecting any macro will type out the macro enclosed in the left and right curly braces at the current cursor location. The last macro in this list, {>macro}, is not included in the displayable list of special macros. {@RECORD#} ... Record number of the current record. {@LDATE} ..... Today's LONG date, example: November 19, 1986 {@SDATE} ..... Today's SHORT date, example: 11/19/86 {@EJECT} ..... Sends a form feed to the printer. {@PAUSE} ..... Pauses printing until any key is pressed. {@MARGINx} ... Sets printer margin to x spaces. {@SKIPx} ..... Skips x lines. (Use for single envelopes, postcards, top margins, etc.) {@WAITx} ..... This determines how fast to print. By default there is a 1 second pause after every 10 records are printed before looking to see if <Alt-Q> was pressed. Using this macro will allow you to change this setting to print much faster by simply replacing the x with a larger number. This macro does not work in the Shareware version. {@IF} ........ This macro is explained in the sample form letter. {@ELSE} ...... This macro works ONLY in conjunction with the {IF} macro. {@STATE} ..... To use this macro, a 2-character field will need to be assigned as the "State". See "General Setup" in the on-line documentation. This macro will print the name of the state represented by it's 2-character acronym i.e. AZ = Arizona. {@CR} ........ To use this macro, you must be printing "Carrier Route Bulk Labels". This macro will print two stars and the carrier route field at the right margin of the label: "** CR22". The CR22 is the field content. If you preceded this with "CAR-RT SORT", the first line of the printed label would contain: "CAR-RT SORT ** CR22" {@BARCODE} ... This macro will print a POSTNET bar code from the zip code. The zip code must be either 10 or 12 characters in length and must be assigned as the "Zip Code" field. If the zip code field length is 10 then another "character type" field with a length of 2 must be assigned as the Delivery Point field. Also, a bar code printer must be selected from the "General Setup" sub-menu. See "Field Assignment" under "General Setup" in the on-line documentation. The extra 2 digits in the zip code come from the last 2 numbers in the street address. Doctor Data Software runs a multi-user 24 hour BBS for "File Updating" and other services. File Updating will insert Zip+4+2 plus Carrier Route plus Address Standardization. Call us for more information. Note that if using a laser jet (or compatible) printer, the barcode takes 2 lines instead of only one. If you place this macro above the label, leave a blank line under it. If you place this macro under the label, allow for one additional line in the "Lines per label" setting than is actually in the template. {@BARCODE1} .. This macro will print a POSTNET bar code from the zip code as above except in landscape mode. This is for use on laser jet printers only. {>macro} ..... The word "macro" needs to be replaced by one of the Field macros. This will cause the field data to be printed flush against the right margin of the label. The right margin is the label width in spaces. <Alt-P>rinter Macros ─────────────────────────────────────────── Printer macros may be displayed on the screen by pressing <Alt-P> while editing a template. Selecting any macro will type out the macro enclosed in the left and right curly braces at the current cursor location. If you have not installed a printer and then selected it you will first need to do this with the "General Setup" command in the main menu. See "General Setup" in the on-line documentation. Note: If you have two or more printers and two or more printer drivers installed, be sure not to mix up the printer codes from one driver with the printer codes from the other driver. This can cause unpredictable results when printing since most printers have different printer codes. It is best to make a note of the printer name at the top of the template. Sample Templates ──────────────────────────────────────────────────── The first line(s) of a template can contain notes and comments useful in keeping a record of the date mailed, quantity mailed, what the Filter was set to, etc.. See the sample "Form Letter" template below. These notes and comments may appear only in the beginning of a template and must be preceded with a "*" as the first character on the line. Any blank lines in the beginning of a template will also be ignored. To skip lines, use the {@SKIPx} special macro. The top left corner of the template should be placed at the top left corner of the screen following any comment lines. There should be no left margin in the template. A left margin can be set with the {@MARGINx} macro. It is important that the {@EJECT} macro is placed on the last line of a form letter template in order to be sure the next page is properly started. Sometimes when printing Form Letters, the 2nd letter and others following it will NOT start printing in the same place the first letter was started. To prevent this, advance the paper manually to the top of page and then reset the printer by turning it off and back on or do a form feed from the top of the next page. In viewing these sample templates, remember that the field macros used are those from the provided SAMPLE.DBF database file. Because DDFile allows you to change names of fields, delete fields, and add other fields, you will want to verify a fields existence with <Alt-F>ields. SAMPLE "Form Letter" TEMPLATE: ┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── │ * (First line in letter file) │ * DATE : FILTER : │ * # MAILED : INDEX : │ * (The following line will be ignored because it is in the │ * beginning of the letter and blank.) │ * START OF LETTER (The following line will also be ignored.) │ * Printer margin is set to 10 and Top margin is set to 5. │ │ {@MARGIN10}{@SKIP5} {@LDATE} │ │ {*FIRST} {LAST} │ {COMPANY} │ {ADD1} │ {ADD2} │ {*CITY} {ST} {ZIP} │ │ {@IF}Dear {*FIRST}, │ {@ELSE}To whom it may concern, │ │ This is the body of the letter. The above {@IF} and {@ELSE} │ macros work in that if the macro immediately following the │ {@IF} macro is NOT empty, that line is used and the next │ line with the {@ELSE} macro is ignored. In other words, the │ {FIRST} macro is valid and used ONLY if the "first name" │ field is NOT empty. If the "first name" field is empty, │ the {FIRST} macro is empty and therefore the entire line │ will be ignored and the next line with the {@ELSE} macro will │ be used instead. │ │ Macros may be used within the body to further personalize │ the letter such as: │ │ Welcome {@STATE} friends... │ │ Sincerely, │ {@EJECT} │ SAMPLE "Label" TEMPLATE: ┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── │ CAR-RT SORT ** {@CR} │ {*FIRST} {*LAST} {ACCOUNT} │ {ADD1} │ {ADD2} │ {*CITY} {ST} {ZIP} │ {TITLE} │ The first line of the above template is an example of how to use a Carrier Route Sort field. Notice that "CAR-RT SORT" is not a macro. Other text can be inserted into templates such as "See inside for special offer!" and even printer macros to enhance text. SAMPLE "Master List" TEMPLATE: ┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── │ {@RECORD#} {FIRST} {LAST} {COMPANY} │ {ADD1} {ADD2} {CITY} {STATE} {ZIP} │ Master lists are usually printed and used for looking up records without accessing the database. Usually you would index it on company name, zip code or last name.