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Page 159 SECTION I TAXES TFO 26-4 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2) Deleted or paid items will not appear on the Tax Report. 3) Skip through those items not needing changing using the <Ctrl> key and the <W> key struck together, or key <PgDn>. 4. Select <R>-Report taxes due to create the tax report using the Iamtax file and the Iamtax.mem identification file: S A L E S T A X R E C E I P T S R E P O R T ENTER TODAYS DATE [ / / ] or enter spaces to EXIT . . . . ENTER REPORT'S FIRST MONTH (XX) YEAR (XX) ENTER REPORT'S LAST MONTH (XX) YEAR (XX) A. For a single months report enter the same month and year twice. 1) For a quarterly report type for example 09, 86 and then for the last month 12, 86. B. The "first" month cannot be greater than the "last" month: Please re-enter month & year, FIRST greater than LAST ...... C. When a month/year cannot be found, another possible check is made which could say: NO RECORDS ON FILE WITH 09/86 Hit <return> to CONTINUE [ ] D. When all is OK: PLEASE BE CERTAIN PAPER IS ALIGNED Hit <C>-Continue [ ] Printing report ....... 1) When report is completed: TOTAL RECORDS WRITTEN WERE: Hit <C>-Continue [ ] 2) The first tax menu will reappear. Page 160 SECTION I TAXES TFO 26-5 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 5. Touch -Purge payments so that any receipts marked with an "Y" for "Paid State" will be removed from the tax database file. A. Do this only after having reported for the quarter or the year and/or especially after filing a copy of the latest report. Be patient please - Working ...... 6. Use <T>-Tax ID file so you can change any of the identification details that appear in the tax report. NOTE: The name and address entered here is also used on the sales order heading. A. You will see the following screen which you may <R>-Revise or review and the exit: ---------------C o m p a n y T a x D a t a------------------ |TAX ID. NO. TPH NO | |NAME | |ADDRESS STATE TAX PCT % | |ADDRESS | |CITY ST ZIP | |FEDERAL ID. NO. LAST ENTRY DATE | ---------------------------------------------------------------- <R> - Revise < to QUIT [ ] ----------------------------------N O T E S------------------------------------ <R> - Revise will allow you to change any of the above information. B. After making any changes you will see: ALL O.K.? (Y or N) [ ] 1) Touch <Y> and you will be returned to the first tax menu. SUMMARY: You do not have to enter sales orders, job costing details, or payments to the job cost system in order to take advantage of this tax reporting system. If you are like many businesses you do not have a cash register to tract sales taxes, so you can manually enter sales receipts. Small contractors from all forms of businesses may find this tax reporting system alone worth the cost of The Front Office. - E N D - Page 161 SECTION I SHIPMENTS AND COMMISSION PAYMENT CONTROL TFO 27-1 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- PURPOSE: To track and report anticipated commisssions, paid commissions and shipping dates. Each line item from the sales order ask for a two letter supplier code and a supplier (principal in the case of Manufacturer's Representatives) commission that the company will be receiving for selling the products. Again, do not confuse this commission entered for each item on a sales order with the commission that a salesperson of yours receives as indicated as a percentage on his or her sales records. The salesperson's commission is reported using the <S>-Sale module from the Main Menu, and not related here to this, a company commission. Usually an acknowledgement or report from your supplier verifying that an order has been received by the supplier will come into your office. Whether you receive an acknowledgement from your supplier or whether you prepared the order for your supplier, you will need to prepare a sales order using the <O>-Order selection from the Main Menu. An open order is defined as any order that has not been paid by your principal or company, and that has not been purged from your file by the Order Control routine. Agency commission payments are posted to the each sales order by line item, so that any partial payments on an order can be so processed. Also, since commissions received may vary from the original sales order, the amount posted can vary as well for each line item. Note that when commissions that are split between two salespersons, you can post split payments as well. PROCEDURE: A. After the sales order has been prepared (See TFO 22-Sales Order Processing) you should select <C>-Commissions from the Main Menu to obtain the following screen: SHIPPING AND COMMISSION REPORT O p e n O r d e r s Company: Name: Record number: ITEM NO. ORDER DATE QUAN DESCRIPTION AMOUNT DATES C Select on of the following: [ ] ------------------------------------------------------------ |-reIndex files -Purge payments by date | |<R>-Report of Comm. & Ship. -Update dates and comm. | ------------------------------------------------------------ F1-H E L P Esc-Quit Page 162 SECTION I SHIPMENTS AND COMMISSION PAYMENT CONTROL TFO 27-2 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. Touch -Update dates and comm. which will permit you to enter payment and ship dates and amounts paid from principals. a. You can then enter a control batch dollar amount for the total of any payments you now may wish to enter. Enter Batch Amount 0.00 Enter a figure for the total commission to be posted or Esc to ignore. NOTE: It is a good idea to make a proof tape before posting any items. The total as a proof figure to verify that all dollars are entered correctly. b. Touching <Esc> or <Enter> will permit you to use this procedure without any batch totals, should you wish to perhaps simply view sales order details. c. You will receive a total of all that you posted when you are finished in order to compare to the total on the input tape. d. You will then see a new menu at the bottom of the screen called "Post Commission Payments and Shipments." -Backward <F>-Forward <R>-Revicw <S>-Search <V>-View Esc-Quit [ ] I. To locate sales orders, you will need to <S>-Search for the customer that you desire, or... II. You can then step <F>-Forward and -Backward to locate the particular order that you desire, or... III. When you touch <V>-View you can see whether any commissions or dates have been posted, or... IV. Touch <R>-Revise to enter new payments and/or dates: Item No. Ship Date Paid Date Principal Agency Commission Order No. D u e P a i d 000670021 / / / / 50.00 -Paid & date <S>-Ship date < to Clear Esc-Quit Page 163 SECTION I SHIPMENTS AND COMMISSION PAYMENT CONTROL TFO 27-3 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- a.) To post a payment (the cursor is in the upper right corner under the column headed "C"), enter the letter , enter the date of the payment, and the total payment amount received for the sales order from your principal. b.) You may wish to adjust the salespersons percentage, commissions amount, or the item amount for this order at this time: ------------- Percentage Adjustment for Salesman Code GAX ---------------- | Salesman percentage: 5.0 Commission percent 5.0 | | Original item amount: 129.00 Item amount 129.00 | | Original commission: 6.45 Commission amount 6.45 | -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Touch < to skip any saslesman commission adjustments. 1.) Enter the adjusted amount that you desire. 2.) If you make a mistake you can reenter a new amount, but when you do a control screen will be presented in order to help you know what will happen: Payments were previously received! Payments to date total: $12.90 Amount will increase payments and commissions posted earlier. If this payment is posted in error, touch <, otherwise answer 'Y'. 'N' will replace and 'Y' will increase previously posted information. increase previous figure? (Y or N) N A.) 'N' will replace the old figure on the record and 'Y' will add to the old figure on record. c.) You will then be returned to the "Posting" menu to post another payment to another order. 2. Touch <R>-Report of Comm. & Ship. to present this screen for you to choose how you wish the report to be sorted. Page 164 SECTION I SHIPMENTS AND COMMISSION PAYMENT CONTROL TFO 27-4 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Sequence ----------------- | C=Customer | | O=Order Number| | S=Salesman | | V=Vendor/Supp | | Esc-Quit | ----------------- Touch a letter or use arrow keys to make selections then <. Sequence will be in either Name or Company order a. When selecting <C>-Customer, have you set the reports sequence using the -Utility, <S>-Setup menu to govern output in name or company order? b. You are then asked to enter two dates: DATING-Orders appear on reports based on a beginning and ending date. Entering the same date for a beginning and ending date will report the orders only for that one day. Hit < to enter blank dates so that all orders will report. Enter Beginning date / / and Ending date / / I. As mentioned, enter blanks and all orders in the Order Control File will be reported. NOTE: The report will list the net outstanding commissions due and totaled according to the sequence chosen. II. After printing orders you will be given chance to purge paid orders from the file. (Also, see -Purge, the next paragraph 3). 3. Select -Purge payments by date in order to clean out the Order Contol file of those orders whose every line item has been dated and paid prior to a date that you will be prompted to enter. a. The screen will clear and you will see the message: Purge ------------ | H=H E L P| | Y=Yes | | Esc=Quit | ------------ Information on deleting orders with paid commissions Page 165 SECTION I SHIPMENTS AND COMMISSION PAYMENT CONTROL TFO 27-5 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I. Touch <Y> to continue, and you will see: NOTE: Enter blanks to EXIT, or... To purge orders with paid commissions, enter a date. Use a date for the first day of the month. / / II. Before entering a date, BE CERTAIN that you have a report for the period in question. a.) The date that you enter should always be a date for the first of the month. b.) All items on the order must be marked paid before the order will be deleted. c.) If one item does not have a paid date then the order will remain 'Open'. III. You will receive a message to wait patiently as TFO purges the orders. SUMMARY: We feel that with all the safeguards and simple screens along with the <V>-View command you should be able to easily maintain your shipping reports and commissions. Reporting commissions due using the <V>-Vendor/Supplier report is a great way to help bankers help you with any cash flow problems especially if you are just beginning your sales efforts. How often you purge the Order Control file is up to you. The more orders you have the more frequently you may wish to purge it so that your files do not get to large and waste hard disk space. With fewer orders, you may be able to keep your file intact for years without having to purge it. You control these considerations, however. Purging the Call Report file (TFO-20) is done much the same as purging the Order Contol file. - E N D - Page 167 SECTION II THE WRITE PERSPECTIVE -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Mon Jul 11 02:02 pm 1988 Welcome to the Write-Perspective Word Processor Using: WP.PAR Version Number: 3.X (1 thru 9, Space, End, Esc, Return or Arrow Keys) 1 ENTER a new document 6 DELETE a document 2 EDIT an existing document 7 RENAME a document 3 PRINT a document 8 DEFINE document parameters 4 LIST name of documents 9 EXIT to The Front Office 5 CHANGE current directory Selection: 2 (c) 1988, Eastern Mountain Software, Warner NH, (c) 1988 IAM Bradford NH - N O T I C E - You can use The Write Perspective from your DOS prompt command line. If you have acquired The Front Office by licensing your copy of The Front Office then you DO NOT have to license your copy of The Write Perspective. Of course, should you wish to only use The Write Perspective and not use The Front Office, then you are encouraged to register The Write Perspective in accordance with the initial sign-on screen. The sign-on screen message will appear when you type TWP from The Front Office sub-directory prompt. Page 168 SECTION II THE WRITE PERSPECTIVE CONTENTS -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- CONTENTS INTRODUCTION Organization of This Section. . . . . . . . . . . . 169 Keyboard Usage. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170 QUICK START Starting the "Write-Perspective". . . . . . . . . . 171 Menu Usage. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173 Typing Your First Letter. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173 Top Status Display. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174 Bottom Status Display . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174 Ending an Edit. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176 Editing a Document Resident in Memory . . . . . . . 177 Printing a Document . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179 Printing to the Display . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180 Printing to Disk. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180 Interrupting Printing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181 Editing an Existing Document. . . . . . . . . . . . 181 ADVANCED OPERATIONS Setting Document Parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . 182 Sample Ruler. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183 Centering Lines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 184 Search and Search & Replace Operations. . . . . . . 185 Underline and Boldface (Using Attributes) . . . . . 186 Hyphenation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187 Display Format Statements . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189 Manual Pagination . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 190 Text Block Move Operations. . . . . . . . . . . . . 191 Boiler Plate Using Text Block Operations. . . . . . 192 Headers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193 Top Margin Parameter. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 194 Special Printer Codes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195 Spelling Checkers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195 Field Entry Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 196 Printer Parameter Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197 Setting Default Margins and Tab Stops . . . . . . . 198 Setting Default Form Size and Line Spacing. . . . . 198 Special Option Defaults . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199 Example of a Printer Parameter File . . . . . . . . 200 Command Line Switches (Options) . . . . . . . . . . 200 Command Line Switch Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . 201 Ansi Mode Switches and Editing Differences. . . . . 202 APPENDIX A and B Function Key Summary. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 203 Printer Format Statements Summary . . . . . . . . . 204 GLOSSARY 205 Page 169 SECTION II THE WRITE PERSPECTIVE INTRODUCTION -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- INTRODUCTION The "Write-Perspective" word processor is a fast, powerful, very easy to learn and use writing tool. It is intended for users with both limited and extensive word processing experience. Anyone who has used an ordinary typewriter will find "The Write Perspectives" user-interface very familiar. We designed the "Write-Perspective" to emulate a typewriter, while providing more advanced and powerful functions made possible by the power of your Personal computer. The "Write-Perspective" word processor family makes it easy for a company with many different makes of Personal Computers to have a word processor common to all systems. This facilitates the training of new users and obviates the reliance of some users on any one particular make of Personal Computer. ORGANIZATION OF THIS SECTION The first ten pages or so are a quick way to get started with "The Write Perspective". Each page is headed "Quick Start". The remainer of Section II is headed "Advanced Operations" which affords you more technical information about this very easy to use word processor. Appendix A and B of this word processor section is very handy reference guide to the group of format characters and various special key functions. A glossary is given to assist with terminology. Page 170 SECTION II THE WRITE PERSPECTIVE KEYBOARD USAGE -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- KEYBOARD USAGE The IBM PC, XT & AT keyboards are used in a consistent, and uniform manner as dictated by IBM. That is, the left arrow key will move the cursor one position to the left, while a control shifted left arrow key will move the cursor one word to the left. In addition to the standard key functions, the "Write-Perspective" utilizes some other key sequences to provide additional functionality not outlined by IBM. This manual will make references to keys by using the terminology of the key labels. In cases in which the key must be used in conjunction with a shift key, a slash "/" will be used to indicate that the shift key(s) must be depressed and held while the indicated key is keyed. Example: Alt/1 -- Indicates that the Alt shift key must be depressed and held while the 1 key is keyed. The names of the keys will be shown underlined, and the appendix summarizes the various key usages. Page 171 SECTION II THE WRITE PERSPECTIVE QUICK START -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- STARTING "THE WRITE PERSPECTIVE" Be sure that you have the "WP.PAR" file on your disk. This the printer parameter file. You can change it using selection 8 from "The Write Perspective" menu. "The Write Perspective" comes set up for the Epson/IBM printer stardard. A. From the U-Utility menu select S-Setup in order to inform The Front Office that you intend to use "The Write Perspective" (also see TFO-01, Installing). 1. When the Setup Menu appears select W-Word Processor Install: -------------------------- | F-PFS:Professional | | L-Lotus Manuscript | Select Word Processor | M-MicroSoft Word | The Front Office defaults to use | O-Word Perfect | 'T' for The Write Perspective. To | P-PC Write | change it, enter the letter for | T-TFO Write Perspective| the word processor that you would | W-Word Star | like to use from the list or Esc. [T] -------------------------- F1-H E L P Esc-Quit a. Touch <enter> to accept the default, T, or enter a letter of your choice: ------------------------------------- | Exiting to DOS. To re-initialize | | TFO and your Word Processor, type | | TFO at the DOS prompt. | ------------------------------------- < to Continue [ ] B. From the DOS prompt enter TFO, and select W-Word Processor from the Main Menu. 1. "The Write Perspective" Menu will also appear when doing "One Letter and "Multiple Letters". C. At this point one of two things will happen: 1. The "Write-Perspective" will load, but will issue the message "ENTER name of parameter document: WP.PAR". a. This indicates that the printer parameter file, which contains your default margins, tabs, etc. could not be found on the current directory of the current disk. b. At this point you can either key <Esc> to create a new "WP.PAR" file (refer to the section on "CREATING A PARAMETER FILE"), or try to locate you current version of the "WP.PAR" file, and copy it to the desired directory, and try again. Page 172 SECTION II THE WRITE PERSPECTIVE QUICK START -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- c. Another suggestion would be to set the DOS PATH command to include the directory where "The Write Perspective" resides. 2. "The Write Perspective" will load, and the menu will be displayed. Once the menu is displayed, "The Write Perspective" has been properly loaded into RAM memory along with The Front Office. MENU USAGE The menu is displayed with the most obvious or logical selection highlighted, with the corresponding selection digit displayed blinking following the "Selection:" message. This indicates that the "Write-Perspective" made the selection vs. the user, and once the user changes the selection, the blinking digit stops blinking, indicating that the selection was made by the user. A. To make a menu selection, you have a few options: 1. Use the <space-bar>, <Esc>, <Up-Arrow>, or <Down-Arrow>, followed by the <Enter> key. 2. Key the specified digit prefixed to each selection. Note: When "The Write Perspective" returns to the menu it selects the next most logical function for your convenience. B. The <Esc> key provides quick access to the most used function: "EDIT an existing document". TYPING YOUR FIRST LETTER "The Write Perspective" can be used to produce sophisticated manuscripts, documents, manuals, etc. using many different formatting parameters. At this point, let's begin with asimple one page letter. A. To type out a new letter, select "CREATE a new document" from the menu by keying the <1> key. 1. WP will enter editing mode, indicated by the display screen changing from the menu to the editing screen. 2. If a document was previously edited, then you will see the following message on the screen: DELETE entire contents of current text buffer? (Y or N) a. A <N> answer will return you to the Menu. b. A <Y> answer will cause the editing screen to appear. Before we start typing the new letter, lets examine the the details of the editing screen display. Page 173 SECTION II THE WRITE PERSPECTIVE QUICK START -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- TOP STATUS DISPLAY At the top of the display is a status area containing the name of the document (or [Untitled]), the amount of document memory currently utilized (e.g., 12%), the current cursor column position, and the character that the cursor points to. The two following lines are used for varios functions, such as error messages, search & replace character strings, etc. BOTTOM STATUS DISPLAY At the bottom of the display is a scale that indicates the current margin settings, the current tab settings, and the cursor position. Note that the cursor character will vary depending on which edit mode is selected. 1. The double pointed vertical arrow character indicated that we are in "insert mode", in which case all subsequent characters will be inserted before the current cursor position. 2. The double exclamation point character indicates that we are in overwrite mode, in which case all subsequent characters will replace any existing characters. On the bottom line of the display, the "state" of the various "line attribute" and "character attribute" switches are indicated. 1. The "line attributes" are always "BOLD", "UNDL", while the "Character attributes" may vary from system to system (Refer to "USING ATTRIBUTES"). 2. The attribute names will be highlighted when the character that the cursor points to contains that particular attribute or attributes (Refer to "USING ATTRIBUTES"). It is not necessary that you fully understand the use of any of the attributes or edit modes at this point. You can simply refer to the appropriate sections later. Page 174 SECTION II THE WRITE PERSPECTIVE QUICK START -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Now, let's type the letter. 1. If you detect an error, use the Correct key (Backspace) to delete or back-over the last character typed, and key the correct character. Don't worry about any other errors for now. 2. Also, don't use the Enter key after each line, let "The Write Perspective" format paragraphs for you, just use the <Enter> key at the end of a paragraph (sometimes users like to end a paragraph with two returns, in this case key <Enter> twice). You can type as many paragraphs as you like, but just three or four are sufficient. Remember, let the "Write Perspective" make the formatting decisions, and just key <Enter> at the end of a paragraph. Note that as stated, "The Write Perspective" works like any typewriter, but with obvious advantages. Note that spaces normally are not visable on most computer systems. But, on "The Write Perspective" spaces are visable (spaces are indicated by a small central "dot") as it is sometimes useful to distinguish from keyed spaces verses just "unused space". 1. If you find it annoying to see all those spaces as small dots, you can inhibit this feature (Refer to "THE PRINTER PARAMETER FILE"). 2. To move the cursor left or right a word at a time: use the functions keys F1 & F2 (also Ctrl/Left-Arrow & Ctrl/Right-Arrow). 3. To delete a word: use Shift/F1. Now, using word-left (F1 or Ctrl/Left-Arrow) and word-right (F2 or ctrl/Right- Arrow). Now type a new sentence and observe how "The Write Perspective" works very hard for you by always formatting the text utilizing the current margins, tab stops, etc. (we call this "Dynamic formatting"). To replace a word in insert mode: 1. Use <F1> and <F2> to locate the desired word. 2. Type the new word, followed by a space. 3. Type <Shift>/<F1> to delete the original word. Page 175 SECTION II THE WRITE PERSPECTIVE QUICK START -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- To move a character left or right: use the <Left-Arrow> and <Right-Arrow> Keys. To Delete the current character: use the <Del> key. To move a line left or right: use the <F3> and <F4> keys (the cursor will be automatically located at the first charater of the previous or next line). To move up or down a line: use the <Up-Arrow> and <Down-Arrow> keys (the current position within the line will be preserved if possible, until a new character is typed, or a cursor movement key is keyed). Refer to the Appendix for a complete list of all function keys. ENDING AN EDIT OR CREATE To finish a "CREATE" or "EDIT" function, simply key the <End> key, located on the "ten-key pad". "The Write Perspective" keeps your entire document resident in the computers memory. A. When you "CREATE a new document", you have the option of saving the newly created document on a disk or not. 1. If you decide to save it, you must give it a name. a. If the name is already used on the disk for some other file or document, the "Write-Perspective" will ask you if you would like to: "Rewrite existing document? (Y/N):" I. If you reply "Yes", the new document will replace the old file/document. II. If you say "No", you will have the option to give the new document a unique name. Page 176 SECTION II THE WRITE PERSPECTIVE QUICK START -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- B. When you "EDIT an existing document", and "End" the edit, the "Write- Perspective" will rename the old version with the original name, postfixed with the extension of ".BAK", indicating that this is a backup file, and will write out the newly edited version of the document to the disk using the original name. 1. Therefore, it is necessary to name documents uniquely on the first eight characters of the document name. 2. "The Write Perspective" convention of postfixing all document names with ".DOC" should be followed. Note: Any documents postfixed with ".DOC" will be highlighted in the document list display. This feature of always keeping the last backup copy of a document is very useful if you make any errors when editing a document, and inadvertantly save it to disk. All you have to do is to delete the original document, and rename the ".BAK" version to the original ".DOC" version. You will find that "The Write Perspective" has a few imitators that on the surface, appear to have copied the major features of "The Write Perspective". But if you investigate, you will find that necessary features, such as the keeping of the last backup document, printing to the Display and Disk, variable printer parameters, etc. are non-existent. Page 177 SECTION II THE WRITE PERSPECTIVE QUICK START -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- EDITING A DOCUMENT RESIDENT IN MEMORY A. After either: 1. Creating a new document, or 2. Editing an existing document the user has the option of saving the document to disk or not. a. In either case, the document remains in the computers memory (we call this portion of the computers memory the "Text buffer"). B. The document remains in the text buffer until you: 1. Exit to DOS; 2. Edit a new document, or 3. Create a new document. a. You will be prompted to either delete the contents of the text buffer, or to abandon the current document ("current" refers to the current memory resident document). b. Only in the case of "EDIT an existing document" will you not be prompted. C. To edit a document that is resident in the text buffer: 1. Select "EDIT an existing document". 2. Delete the name of the document (key the <Del> key). 3. Touch <Enter>. D. To print a document that is resident in the text buffer: 1. Select "Print a document". 2. Touch Enter only for the name of the document. 3. Select any other printer options desired. Page 178 SECTION II THE WRITE PERSPECTIVE QUICK START -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- PRINTING A DOCUMENT A. While many options are available for printing documents, the most common case of printing a document to the printer is as follows: 1. Select "PRINT a document". 2. Enter the name of the document. a. Or no name when printing the document resident in the text buffer. 3. Make sure the printer is ready 4. Key Enter for each option until the display screen is cleared. B. To print a document utilizing some print options: 1. Repeat steps #1 & #3 outlined above. 2. Key the "Number of Copies:" or key <Enter> to print one copy of the document. 3. Key the "Beginning Page Number:" or key <Enter> to start with page #1. 4. Key the "Ending Page Number:" or key <Enter> to end printing with the last page of the document. 5. Key "Y" or "N" to the "Stop after Each Page? (Y/N):" prompt, or just key <Enter> to specify no stopping. 6. Key "Y" or "N" to the "Print to Display? (Y/N):" prompt, or just key <Enter> to not print to Display. 7. Key "Y" or "N" to the "Print to Disk? (Y/N):" prompt, or just key <Enter> to not print to Disk. Page 179 SECTION II THE WRITE PERSPECTIVE QUICK START -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- PRINTING TO THE DISPLAY A. If you select to print to the Display, the document will be formatted and displayed on the display, one screen at a time. 1. All you need do is key the <Space-Bar> to continue with the next screen, or key <Esc> and answer the "Continue Printing? (Y/N):" prompt to end printing. B. This feature is very useful to view your document before you waste a lot of paper formatting your document, or if you have a high-quality printer that prints very slow. PRINTING TO DISK A. If you select to print to Disk, the document will be formatted and written to the disk just as if it would have been printed to the printer. B. You must enter a name for the "print image" document. 1. The name, which need not be unique, will be used regardless if it is already used by an existing file or document. 2. This makes it easy to always use the same name when printing a document to disk. C. This feature allows you to create a copy of the document that contains only ASCII text characters. 1. ASCII text characters are stardardarized characters amongst various printers. a. This makes it easy to move a document from "The Write Perspective" to another word processor or text editor. b. All that you need do is remove any unnecessary spaces from the "print image" document. Page 180 SECTION II THE WRITE PERSPECTIVE QUICK START -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- INTERRUPTING PRINTING A. To interrupt or end printing, key <Esc>. 1. The prompt "Continue Printing? (Y/N):" will appear. 2. Simply respond with either "Y" to continue (just an interruption, in case the phone rang, or paper looked like it may have jammed, etc.) or with "N" to end printing. 3. The paper will be advanced to the top of the next page. EDITING AN EXISTING DOCUMENT A. To edit or change an existing document select "EDIT an existing document" from the menu. 1. Enter the document name (or edit the existing name if any), key <Enter> to begin editing. 2. Cursor movement keys <F1>, <F2>, <F3>, <F4>, along with the Arrow Keys are useful for perusing a document. a. Search (& replace) functions (F7 & F8 which are discussed later) are very useful when changing a document. Note: The functions "CREATE a new document" and "EDIT an existing document" operate identically once entered, and are generally refered to as an edit operation. This is a good time for you to stop reading this section of the manual and to begin enjoying "The Write Perspective". At this point, you have enough knowledge to effectively create and edit documents. Once you are comfortable with the basic operations of "The Write Perspective", you may want to read the remaining pages on "Advanced Operations". Also, be sure to have handy the APPENDIX pages for the various print format characters and special key combinations as a quick reference. Page 181 SECTION II THE WRITE PERSPECTIVE ADVANCED OPERATIONS -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- SETTING DOCUMENT PARAMETERS You can change margins, paragraph beginnings and tab stops as many times as needed within any document. You simply create a ruler at the location within the document where you want the new parameters to take effect (must be at the beginning of a line). The old values will be remembered when you scroll backwards, so that the preceeding text will remain formatted as previously. A ruler is a line of text characters within a document that establishes new margins, a new paragraph beginning, and new tab stops for all text following until the next ruler. It is called a ruler because it is analog in nature, i.e. you specify a ruler in analog fashion, by placing the appropriate parameter character within a horizontal line, in the position in which it is to take effect, as opposed to a digital fashion, in which you indicate a parameter by a value, or digits. A. A ruler is a line of text that is not printed, and it must be preceeded by a return (Enter must have been keyed). To enter a ruler, you must: 1. Key <Enter> to enter a return (unless the previous line already contains a return). 2. Key the "Format" character (Refer to "ENTERING A FORMAT LINE") by keying the <F9> key. 3. Key <L> to indicate the left margin, '-'(hyphens) to bind the parameters, <T> to indicate a tab stop, <R> indicate the right-margin, and to indicate the paragraph beginning. 4. Key <Enter> at the end of the format line. Note: The left margin must be specified first, followed by the paragraph beginning (optional), followed by up to twenty tab stops (optional), and finally the right margin, terminated by <Enter>. Use hyphens ("-") to connect or bind the parameters, and the "Format-Character" (F9) to start the ruler. Page 182 SECTION II THE WRITE PERSPECTIVE ADVANCED OPERATIONS -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- SAMPLE RULER A. We will create a ruler that will set the margins 5 and 50. No paragraph beginning will be set. The tab stops will be 10, 20, 30 and 40. f----L----T---------T---------T---------T-----------------R Note: The "f" indicates the "Format-Character" (F9) which must be pressed first. 1. By inserting or deleting hyphens within the ruler you can adjust the margins and tab stops as needed. 2. Any changes to an existing ruler will take effect immediately on the following text. a. You can change a ruler at any time and all subsequent text will be formatted accordingly. B. When scrolling forward through a ruler, the bottom status scale will indicate the new document parameters. 1. When scrolling backward through a ruler, the bottom status scale will revert to the previous document parameters. C. Since "The Write Perspective" has a "dynamic tab" feature, you are able to adjust columns by simply adjusting the tab markers (T's) within a ruler to readjust the text columns. D. Most other word processors insert actual spaces for tabs, in which case you cannot simply realign columns by changing tab stops, but must first delete the inserted spaces. E. As with any text, you can use search & replace to find and change rulers, and "Cut & Paste" to move rulers. Page 183 SECTION II THE WRITE PERSPECTIVE ADVANCED OPERATIONS -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. An easy way to move a ruler is to: a. Move the cursor to the beginning of the existing ruler. b. Delete the ruler via <Shift>/<F3>. c. Move the cursor to the new beginning line position. d. Undelete the old ruler via <F10>. CENTERING LINES A. To center a line within the current margins: Note: Make sure that the preceding line is terminated with a return,(the <Enter> key was keyed. 1. Key the "Format-Character" <F9>. 2. Key a <C> to indicate center. 3. Key the text to be centered. 4. Key <Enter>. B. As with tabs, centering is also dynamic, and centered text remains centered when the margins and/or centered text is changed. Page 184 SECTION II THE WRITE PERSPECTIVE ADVANCED OPERATIONS -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- SEARCH AND SEARCH & REPLACE OPERATIONS A. To search forward: 1. Key <F8>. 2. Key the character, word, phrase (exactly, in correct case). 3. Key <F8> again to initiate the search. a. We do not terminate the search string with a return (Enter) because this would preclude the searching for returns within a document, which is a very useful way to step from one paragraph to another. b. Also, searching for a period, followed by two spaces is a fast way to step from one sentence to another. c. Searching for a pattern that is not likely to exist within a document is a fast way to move to the end or beginning of a document. d. To search for the same word or phrase, simply key <F8> twice. e. To enter a new search pattern, key <F8>, and edit the search string as you would any field (Refer to "FIELD EDITING") then key <F8> again. f. To back-out of a search or search & replace operation you can use the <Esc> key as usual. It will also terminate an ongoing search. Page 185 SECTION II THE WRITE PERSPECTIVE ADVANCED OPERATIONS -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- B. To initiate a forward search & replace operation: 1. Key <Shift>/<F8>. 2. Key the search word or phrase (exactly, in correct case). 3. Key <Shift>/<F8> again. 4. Key the replacement word or phrase. 5. Key <Shift>/<F8> again to initiate the search & replace. Note: Both the search & replacement strings will remain until you change them or exit to DOS. C. Backward search and search & replace operations are just like forward operations except that <F7> and <Shift>/<F7> are used instead of <F8> and <Shift>/<F8>. You will find that searching will become very natural with a little practice. UNDERLINE AND BOLDFACE (Using Attributes) A character is any printable character. Each and every character can have one or more attributes. A character attribute determines how the character will print, or may indicate that the character is the beginning of a sylable, which is useful for automatic hyphenation. Underline and Boldface are printing attributes, and are indicated by the "UNDL" and "BOLD" attribute switches on the bottom status area. Key <Alt>/<8> first to clear any attributes that may be active. Page 186 SECTION II THE WRITE PERSPECTIVE ADVANCED OPERAIOTNS -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- A. To underline a character as it is typed: 1. Key the <Alt>/<2> or <F6> underline attribute key. a. The "UNDL" will be displayed in inverted video indicating that the"UNDL" attribute is active. 2. Type the text characters. a. They too will be displayed in inverted video, indicating that some attribute has been applied. 3. Key the <Alt>/<2> or <F6> again to deactivate the "UNDL" attribute (this is a toggle). B. To boldface ("BOLD") existing text: 1. Key the <Alt>/<1> or <F5> boldface attribute key, the "BOLD" will be displayed in inverted video indicating that the "BOLD" attribute is active. 2. Use right cursor movement keys to assign the "BOLD" attribute to the existing text. a. These keys are: <F2>, <F4>, <Right-Arrow> and <Ctrl>/<Right-Arrow>. C. To assign any or any combination of attributes, activate the attribute switches, and use right cursor movement to assign the attribute(s). D. To deassign (remove) one or more assigned attributes, activate the attribute swithche(s), and use left cursor movement to deassign the attribute(s). E. To display the assigned attributes of any given character, simple place the cursor on the desired character, and the appropriate attribute switche(s) will be highlighted. Note: The syllable ("SYLL") attribute should only be used on the first character of a syllable, and not the whole word. See "Hyphenation" below. F. The attributes corresponding to the <Alt>/<4>, <Alt>/<5>, <Alt>/<6> and <ALT>/<7> keys are defined by the user, and vary from system to system, and printer to printer. In general, they can be applied just as boldface and underline attributes are, and can be deassigned or removed as boldface and underline attributes are. Page 187 SECTION II THE WRITE PERSPECTIVE ADVANCED OPERATIONS -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- HYPHENATION Word boundaries are indirectly relayed to "The Write Perspective" by keying spaces and tabs. The "Write Perspective" uses this information in forming the right margin, and with this information, a relatively smooth right margin results. However, when long words are used, or narrow margins are utilized, it may be necessary to tell "The Write Perspective" where the syllables of a long word begin. A. To indicate to "The Write Perspective" where the syllable begins: 1. Place the cursor on the first character of the syllable. 2. Activate the "SYLL" attribute switch by keying <Alt>/<3>. 3. Move the cursor right on character by keying the Right-Arrow key to apply the "SYLL" attribute to the character. 4. Key <Alt>/<3> to deactivate the "SYLL" attribute. If you indicate several syllable beginnings in a word, "The Write Perspective" will include as many syllables as possible on a line before breaking a word to the next line. "The Write Perspective" adds a hyphen for printing and display purposes only. These display hyphens are transparent to search functions and cursor movement (the hyphen is only generated at display and print time and at the end of the line, it is not actually inserted into the document when it appears between syllables not at the end of a line). Page 188 SECTION II THE WRITE PERSPECTIVE ADVANCED OPERATIONS -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- DISPLAY FORMAT STATEMENTS Format statements direct "The Write Perspective" to perform optional formatting functions on the following text of a document. No format statement will be printed. A. All format statements are entered by: 1. Keying <Enter> before keying the statement (not needed if the previous line was terminated with Enter). 2. Keying <F9> to enter a format-character. 3. Keying the remainder of the format statement. 4. Keying Enter to terminate the format statement. Format statements generally affect the printed output. However, some format statements also affect the editing of a document. They are: fL---P---T----T-----T-------------------------------R The RULER -- Used to change margins, paragraph beginning and tab stops. fC = CENTER LINE -- Dynamically centers a line between the current margins. fAP= ADVANCE PAGE -- Used to advance to the next page, resets the line count and advances the page number. fPM= PAGE MODE -- Used to set the editor into page-mode. NOTE: "The Write Perspective" is normally in non-page mode, in which case no line or page number is displayed, and pagination is performed at print time. Refer to the Appendix for a complete list of all format statements. Page 189 SECTION II THE WRITE PERSPECTIVE ADVANCED OPERATIONS -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- MANUAL PAGINATION "The Write Perspective" provides totally automatic pagination. Document text will be printed using all, or most of the current "page size" (default: 11 inches or 66 lines) unless you specify to advance to the next page via the fAP format statement. "The Write Perspective" can be told to hold a block of text together, that is, to print a indicated block of text on a single page via the fGS:nn format statement. This automatic pagination is extremely useful when producing a lengthy manual or document. However, typing a simple one or two page letter can be difficult with automatic pagination. For example, you might want to print a one page letter a few lines beyound the defined page size, or you may want to start a new page early. A. To switch to manual pagination mode: 1. Answer <Y> for yes to the "Use Page and Line Mode?" question when defining a printer parameter file. a. This will cause the page size definition to be ignored, and a page and line number to be displayed on the status line. b. You must now use the format statement fAP to begin a new page. TEXT BLOCK MOVE OPERATIONS All text-block functions use a file called "CUTPASTE.AUX", for storing the last text-block either copied or moved. You can (via Ctrl/Alt/N) rename the text- block auxiliary file to be any valid file name, but be careful as the next block copy or move will replace the entire contents of the current auxiliary document! Once you change the name of the auxiliary document, and perform the desired operation, you should immediately change the name of the auxiliary document back to "CUTPASTE.AUX" to avoid destroying a possible useful document. Page 190 SECTION II THE WRITE PERSPECTIVE ADVANCED OPERATIONS -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- A. "The Write Perspective" provides four basic text block (or Cur & Paste) operations that may be used in any order: Copy a block of text to a Disk. Move a block of text to a Disk (deleting the text). Inserting a block of text from a Disk into a document. Naming the text block file (along with the document, and parameter files). 1. To COPY a block of text from a document to a Disk: a. Position the cursor at the beginning of the block. b. Key <Ctrl>/<Alt>/<C> to mark the beginning of the block. c. Position the cursor to the character following the last character of the block to copy. d. Key <Ctrl>/<Alt>/<C> again to copy the block to Disk. 2. To MOVE a block of text from a document to a Disk: a. Position the cursor at the beginning of the block. b. Key <Ctrl>/<Alt>/<M> to mark the beginning of the block. c. Position the cursor to the character following the last character of the block to copy. d. Key <Ctrl>/<Alt>/<M> again to copy the block to Disk. 3. To INSERT a block of text from a Disk into a Document: a. Position the cursor at the insertion point. b. Key <Ctrl>/<Alt>/ to insert the block. Page 191 SECTION II THE WRITE PERSPECTIVE ADVANCED OPERATIONS -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4. To RENAME the Current, Auxiliary and Parameter Documents: a. Key <Ctrl>/<Alt>/<N>. b. Edit the name of the current document (if desired). c. Key <Enter> to continue, <Esc> to end. d. Edit the name of the auxiliary document (if desired). e. Key <Enter> to continue, <Esc> to end. f. Edit the name of the parameter document (if desired). g. Key <Enter>. B. As usual, to back-out of any text block operation, key <Esc>. C. Text-block can be any size, and may begin and end on any character of the document, and is not restricted to whole lines. Each time you either copy or move (copy & delete the text from the document) to the Disk, the current Auxiliary file is used. Each time it is deleted first, then recreated with the new contents of the new text-block. BOILER PLATE USING TEXT BLOCK OPERATIONS When typing letters and documents, there often are several hundred keystrokes that are always the same. A convenient way to eliminate keying this redundant information for every document is to use a "boiler plate" file. Page 192 SECTION II THE WRITE PERSPECTIVE ADVANCED OPWERATIONS -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- A. To create a boiler plate file: 1. Create a document containing the common information. 2. End the edit saving the document with a indicative name, such as "STDLETTR.DOC". B. To create a standard document using the boiler plate document: 1. Create a new document. 2. Key <Ctrl>/<Alt>/<N>. 3. Key <Enter> to step to the Auxiliary document name. 4. Key <Del> to delete the current Auxiliary document name. 5. Key in the name of the boiler plate document (STDLETTR.DOC). 6. Key <Enter> twice. 7. Key <Ctrl>/<Alt>/ to insert the contents of the boiler plate a document into your current doucument. 8. (Optional) Change the name of the Auxiliary document back to "CUTPASTE.AUX". You can use this example for inserting standard paragraphs, or any standard text into any document. Page 193 SECTION II THE WRITE PERSPECTIVE ADVANCED OPERATIONS -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- HEADERS "The Write Perspective" provides a one line header, that is defined by the format statement fH1, followed by the header information. The header is not centered, but is printed just as it has been entered. A. To center a header: 1. Enter the format statement fC (for center). 2. Key the header text and it will be centered on the display. 3. Move the cursor to the first character of the header text. 4. Note the column number of the first character. 5. Replace the format statement fC with the format statement fH1. 6. Insert spaces before the first character of the header text until the first character of the header text is the same as the number noted in number 4 above. B. The header will be centered between the margins that are in effect at the time that the header is processsed. C. A null header will effectively turn off printing of headings. D. A new header can be specified any number of times within a document. TOP MARGIN PARAMETER You can specify how many lines to skip from the top (vertical margin) of the document. Note that everything (including the header, if any) will be affected. The format statement is called "VM:n" (Vertical Margin), where 'n' is the number of lines to skip. Remember to key "F9" first on a new line to indicate that it is a format statement that follows. The VM format statement is a must for laser printers where centering the paper vertically is not easily accomplished. When The Front Office creates the merge file for The Write Prespective it will place this format statement in the file and set the vertical line feed number to 8 (an inch and a half). Be sure to revise this automatic feature if your document is lenghty or very short as 8 seems to be a good average for most printers. Keep in mind that some printers have a default top margin, as well. Page 194 SECTION II THE WRITE PERSPECTIVE ADVANCED OPERATIONS -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- SPECIAL PRINTER CODES While "The Write Perspective" provides for four special characrter attributes, that can be tailored for any particular printer function at the character level, you might also want to setup your printer to do some other function. The format statement fPC: n1, n2, n3 (where n1, n2, n3 are decimal numbers separated by commas)... allows you to send any codes to the printer whenever the statement is found. Certain printers can accept a new character set, or a command to set a certain pitch, line size, ribbon color, sound the bell, or even power on or off. This format statement allows you to send any number of decimal codes, seperated by commas, directly to the printer. For specifying such attributes as Italics, it is recommended that you setup your "WP.PAR" file to set and reset the italic codes to be used at the character attribute level, as opposed to utilizing the fPC statement. With the fPC statement, you cannot print regular and italic information on the same line, as all format statement lines must begin on a new line. But by setting up your paramter file to use italics as one of the optional character attributes, you can print italics on the same line as regular text. The nomal "WP.PAR" file supplied with "The Write Perspective" has if fact, been setup for an Epson FX-80 printer that has italics, subscripts, superscripts and condensed print defined as the optional character attributes. See number 8 on "The Write Perspective" menu. SPELLING CHECKERS All versions of "The Write Perspective" use normal DOS ASCII files and, therefore, are compatible with most spelling checker programs. If, however, a particular spelling checker program has a problem with a "Write-Perspective" document, you need only print the document to the Disk as a print image, then use the print image file to perform the spelling checking on. Page 195 SECTION II THE WRITE PERSPECTIVE ADVANCED OPERATIONS -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- FIELD ENTRY OPTIONS A string in computer language is simply a length of letters and numbers usually filling a field. What follows is how strings of data can be searched and edited with "The Write Perspective". All fields such as the name of the document, search strings, etc. are handled in a consistent and similar fashion. If the field was entered previously, the contents will be preserved and displayed, with the cursor at the last plus one position (this indicates the actual size of the string vs. the size of the field. The following keys are available for editing the contents of the field or strings, and have the following results on the current character or at the end of a field: WHEN THE CURSOR IS KEY FUNCTION ON A CHARACTER or AT END OF FIELD Up-Arrow Convert to uppercase cur char entire line Down-Arrow Convert to lowercase cur char entire line Del-key Delete cur char entire line Ins-key Insert a space cur char N/A Left-Arrow Move cursor left N/A N/A Right-Arrow Move cursor right N/A N/A Correct Delete char left N/A N/A Esc Exit with old string N/A N/A NOTE: Depending on where the cursor is positioned, some functions have an effect on the entire line vs. a single character. The convert to upper/lower case functions are very useful when searching, since case always matters. With these functions, with a single keystroke you can convert an entire string to upper or lower case, or delete the entire field. Page 196 SECTION II THE WRITE PERSPECTIVE ADVANCED OPERATIONS -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- PRINTER PARAMETER FILES You should refer to your printer manual, if necessary, to set-up "The Write Perspective" for your particular printer. When "The Write Perspective" prints a document, it utilizes a file called a print "parameter" file (default = "WP.PAR"). This file contains printer control strings that are issued before and after each character of a document that contains the particular attribute. For instance, the "wp.par" printer file shown on page 185, shows the control strings for an Epson printer. Note that a four character name is associated with each of the four character attributes, along with a "set" and "reset" control string. These four character names are displayed at edit time, on the attribute line, and represent the four character attributes. Each string, variable in length, is entered in decimal notation, separated by commas, and terminated by <Enter>. For example, to set the Epson to "italic" mode, we turn-on the mode with the set string of "27,52", which translates to an Esc,R. A BASIC program would defined it this way: 10 LPRINT CHR$(27);"R";. Similarly, to reset the attribute we issue the reset string of Esc,S, or again in BASIC notation: 20 LPRINT CHR$(27);"S";. In some printers, no subscripts or superscripts are printer by the printer automatically. It is therefore necessary to either roll the platen up (for subscripts) or down (for superscripts), print the character, then roll the platen back to its original position. This can be accomplished with the set and reset strings. Please refer to your printer manual, or give us a call if you can't figure out how to define a set or reset string. Note that any string can contain the numbers from zero (0) through (255), and the commas and the <Enter> are not sent to the printer. Page 197 SECTION II THE WRITE PERSPECTIVE ADVANCED OPERATIONS -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- SETTING DEFAULT MARGINS AND TAB STOPS The printer parameter file also contains your default left margin, paragraph beginning, tabs and right margins. These default settings should be set to whatever you feel best suits you. The paragraph setting indicated the position for automatically indenting paragraphs, and is optional by entering the value of 126. Up to 20 Tabs can be defined, again, in decimal notation, separated by commas, and terminated by <Enter>. SETTING DEFAULT FORM SIZES AND LINE SPACING The form size indicates the size in lines of the physical form or paper. An eleven inch form printed at 1/6 inch per line would be 66 lines in size, which is the most common setting, therefore is the default. If you select, via the "PC" format statement, to change the size of a line, you may need to adjust the form size. Note that this setting is used to locate the beginning of the next form or page, and therefore must be accurately defined. Also, if a form size of zero is defined, a form-feed (12 decimal) will be issued to the printer instead of issuing line-feeds (10 decimal), which, depending on the printer, might speed up the paper advancing between pages. The page size indicates how many lines of the form will be utilized for printing. Some room must be reserved if you intend on using headers and or page numbering. The default setting is 54. The line spacing default is set to one. This indicates single spacing, but any number can be entered. Page 198 SECTION II THE WRITE PERSPECTIVE ADVANCED OPERATIONS -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- SPECIAL OPTION DEFAULTS Certain options that can be switched on or off are also included in the printer parameter file. If you have a computer that has a color/graphics adapter, but utilizes the monochrome adapters attributes, you can force "The Write Perspective" to consider it a monochrome adapter in terms of display attributes. The default is generally "N". Sometimes it is desirable (and advantageous) to see what characters are actually contained within a document. The special character display default, if selected, will show actual spaces vs. display spaces, along with tabs, returns, binding spaces and the document end character (EOF). If not enabled, these characters are displayed as spaces. The page/line mode can be activated by the page/line default. When activated, the actual page and line number will be displayed in the upper right area of the display. Also, the PgUp and PgDn keys will be activated to allow the paging of text. Note that the form size specified in the printer parameter file is used exclusively, and that any changing of the form size via the form size format statement will be ignored. Also note that you can force a new page with the advance page format statement and the current page/line numbers will be adjusted automatically. When you enter the last option of the printer parameter file, the name of the printer parameter file will be displayed, for your correction. If the name is OK, then just press <Enter> and the new changes will be updated. Page 199 SECTION II THE WRITE PERSPECTIVE ADVANCED OPERATIONS -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- EXAMPLE OF A PRINTER PARAMETER FILE Enter Name of Parameter Document: WP.PAR LEFT MARGIN: 10 PARAGRAPH beginning: 126 RIGHT MARGIN: 70 TAB(S): 16,24,32,40,48,56,64, FORM SIZE: 66 PAGE SIZE: 54 LINE SPACING: 1 USER1 NAME: ITAL USER1 SET STRING: 27,52, USER1 RESET STRING: 27,53, USER2 NAME: SUBS USER2 SET STRING: 27,83,1 USER2 RESET STRING: 27,84, USER3 NAME: SUPR USER3 SET STRING: 27,83,0, USER3 RESET STRING: 27,84, USER4 NAME: COND USER4 SET STRING: 15, USER4 RESET STRING: 18, USE BLACK & WHITE (ON COLOR ADAPTER)? (Y/N): N USE SPECIAL DISPLAY CHARACTERS? (Y/N): N USE PAGE/LINE MODE? (Y/N): N COMMAND LINE SWITCHES (Options) When you load "The Write-Perspective", it uses standard defaults that apply to most editing situations. However, sometimes it is necessary to direct "The Write-Perspective" as to which file to edit; which printer file to utilize; where the help files reside; what the default disk drive is; etc. Therefore we have provided a mechanism which allows you to specify most necessary options at the command line level when executing the "Write-Perspective." These switches can be combined, but when an argument is needed, it must be followed by a space. The arguments can be given in any order, and can be duplicated (with no advantage), with the last occurrence taking precedence. When you type "WP" at the command line, try typing "WP -?" (or any invalid switch). This will result in a display of all available switches with there meanings. Note that you can come up with some fairly complex command line arguments. Therefore we recommend that you create a batch file containing your standard command line settings thereby relieving you of the burden of remembering them each time you run the "Write-Perspective." Page 200 SECTION II THE WRITE PERSPECTIVE ADVANCED OPERATIONS -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- COMMAND LINE SWITCH SUMMARY If you have NOT registered your copy of The Front Office with Inter active micro, Inc., then when you type 'WP' from your DOS command line prompt you will see a sign-on screen encouraging you to register The "Write Perspective". You need not register The Write Perspective when you register The Front Office with Inter active micro, Inc....it is included with The Front Office registration. You can use The "Write Perspective" from your DOS prompt command line. Write Perspective is a shareware product just like TFO, and it is supplied here under a royality agreement with the author, of The "Write Perspective", Eastern Mountain Software. If you have acquired The Front Office by registering your copy of The Front Office and you do not need to register your copy of The Write Perspective. Of course, should you wish to only use The "Write Perspective" and not use The Front Office, then we encourage you to register The Write Perspective in accordance with the initial sign-on screen. Command line switches allow you to turn off the registration and shareware sign-on screen when only using The "Write Perspective". For example type from your DOS prompt: <WP -b> The full command options are explained below: Usage: wp -a -c\COMMAND.COM -dC -eFILE -m -pFILE -rSTRING -sSTRING tFILE -uFILE -wNUMBER -z\wp\wp.exe -h\wp\help Where: a =ANSI terminal mode (Default = CONSOLE) c<PATH> =SET path & filename of "COMMAND.COM" (Default=current directory) d<DISK> =SET default disk drive (single letter) e<FILE> =EDIT specified text file h<PATH> =SET path to help files (ex. -h\wp) m =MENU displays menu with standard characters p<FILE> =PRINT specified text file r<STRING>=SET replacement string default s<STRING>=SET search string default t<FILE> =SET cut/paste document name default u<FILE> =SET printer parameter file w<NUMBER>=SET top window line number (0 through 10) z<PATH> =SET path & filename of "WP.EXE" (Default=current directory) Examples: wp -amw0 -tTEMP.DOC -eMEMO.DOC wp -a -cd:\pgms\COMMAND.COM /c dir Page 201 SECTION II THE WRITE PERSPECTIVE ADVANCED OPERATIONS -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Note that you can direct "The Write Perspective" to execute any program, assuming that you have sufficient memory, by using the -c switch. Lets say that you would like to execute a program called test.exe, that resides on disk "D:", in directory "\PROGRAMS", that requires one command line argument also. You would type in the following command (or use a batch file): WP - CD:\programs\test.exe argument<Enter>. Note that "The Write Perspective" will ignore any command line argument that does not begin with a hyphen. This allows most other programs to be run that do not require a hyphen as the first character of the argument. To call the command processor and execute the DIR command, key the following: WP -c\COMMAND.COM /c dir (Assuming that the Command.com is in the root directory). NOTE: Inter active micro, Inc., does not support the non-interactive mode that is available with The Write Perspective. To obtain more help with the full power of The Write Perspective as it can be used in Unix and on other non-compatible terminals we encourage you to contact Eastern Mountain Software at 603-456-2111. ANSI MODE SWITCHES AND EDITING DIFFERENCES ANSI (American National Standards Institute) mode is selected by the command line attribute switch -a. It is used primarily for systems that utilize ASCII terminals, or consoles that do not have the traditional memory-mapped video, standard on the IBM PC's and "workalikes." It is the only available option for use on XENIX and UNIX systems. Under DOS, it is only necessary when redirecting the console to a communications port (CTTY command), or when using a multi-user DOS, that supports ASCII terminals connected to the serial ports and the terminals are not IBM compatible. Due to the ASCII terminals limitations, this mode of operating, albeit optimized, is significantly slower and more cumbersome that the normal non-ANSI mode, and should be avoided if possible. In ANSI mode, many functions work differently. For instance, searching does not scroll the display as it progresses, but will update the display when finished. Similarly, the display window will not always be updated if you continue keying, but will be refreshed when you pause. The Ctrl/x function key definitions were created primarily for ASCII terminals that do not emulate the IBM PC's keyboard, and are not intended to be utilized on the IBM PC, although their use is not inhibited. Since "The Write Perspective" uses the special line drawing characters available on the IBM PC, the -m command line switch inhibits the usage of these characters for terminals that do not support these characters. Page 202 SECTION II THE WRITE PERSPECTIVE Appendix A -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- APPENDIX A -- FUNCTION KEY SUMMARY FUNCTION KEY PC Version USAGE KEY KEY-PAD or ARROW-KEYS _________________________________________________________ Left Character Ctrl/S Left Right Character Ctrl/D Right Left Word F1 or Ctrl/A Ctrl/Left Right Word F2 or Ctrl/F Ctrl/Right Left Line F3 or Ctrl/Z --- Right Line F4 or Ctrl/X --- Previous Line (Up vertically) Ctrl/Z Up Next LIne (Down vertically) Ctrl/X Down Reverse Search F7 or Ctrl/J --- Forward Search F8 or Ctrl/L --- Reverse Search & Replace Shift/F7 --- Forward Search & Replace Shift/F8 --- Delete Character Del or Ctrl/G --- Delete Word Shift/F1 or Ctrl/T Delete Entire Line Alt/D or Ctrl/Y Delete to End of Line Shift/F3 --- Undo the Last Delete F10 or Ctrl/U --- Ending an Edit (Save Option) Alt/F10, Ctrl/E, or End Ending an Edit (Save Always) Alt/X --- Quitting an Edit Alt/Q --- Writing Document W/O Ending Alt/W --- Reading in a Document Alt/R --- Toggle Insert/Typeover Mode Ctrl/V Ins Toggle Boldface Attribute F5, Alt/1 or Ctrl/B Toggle Underline Attribute F6, Alt/2 or Ctrl/_ Toggle Syllable Attribute Alt/3 --- Toggle User Defined Attb. #1 Alt/4 (Varies by Printer) Toggle User Defined Attb. #2 Alt/5 (Varies by Printer) Toggle User Defined Attb. #3 Alt/6 (Varies by Printer) Toggle User Defined Attb. #4 Alt/7 (Varies by printer) Clear all Active Attributes Alt/8 --- Enter a Binding Space Shift/F5 or Ctrl/^ Enter a Format Line or Ruler F9 or Ctrl/P --- Copying a Block of Text Alt/C or Ctrl/C (twice) Moving a Block of Text Alt/M or Ctrl/M (twice) Inserting a Block of Text Alt/I or Ctrl/I Change the Name of a Document Alt/N --- Change the Name of Temp Doc. Alt/N --- Change the Name of Par Doc. Alt/N --- Execute another WP Alt/E or Ctrl/W Execute the Command Processor Alt/Z or Ctrl/O Display Help Information Alt/H or Ctrl/R Page 203 SECTION II THE WRITE PERSPECTIVE Appendix B -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- APPENDIX B -- PRINTER FORMAT STATEMENTS PRINTER FUNCTIONS PC Version All format statements must be preceded by a return, and must be terminated by a return, and must be started on a new line with the format character F9. Note that the F9 format character will be positioned in position zero of the current line, offset to the left from any other non-format line. If this is not the case, then the format character F9 was keyed in the middle of a line of text, and will have no effect on the document as a format statement, and will be printed as standard text. All format statements begin with the F9 format statement, and two characters that determine the format statement itself, and possibly a parameter or number preceded by a colon. CODE FUNCTION " Comments..." Allows non-printed comments AP Advances to the Next Page C Center a Line CD:LETTER.DOC Continues Printing with Document FS:66 Size of Form (Lines) (0=Use Form Feed) PS:54 Number of lines to print on form SN or SN:02 Start Page numbering, # optional EN Ends Page numbering SJ Start Character Justification EJ End Character Justification GS:10 Guarantee Space (ties lines together) LS:2 Line Spacing H1 Text... Header (One line only) PC:27,01,... Printer Codes sent to Printer L-P-T----R L=Left margin, T=Tab, P=Paragraph begin and R=Right margin PA Pause after printing each page Page 204 SECTION II THE WRITE PERSPECTIVE Glossary -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- GLOSSARY ATTRIBUTE: "The Write Perspective" provides for seven character attributes. Three of these attributes are fixed, and cannot be altered by the user. The remaining four attributes can be assigned any function that a particular printer may provide. In general, attributes determine how a character will be printed. BINDING SPACE CHARACTER: This character prints as a space, displays as a special symbol and is used where it is necessary to "bind" or hold together a number of words that must be separated by spaces. BOILER-PLATE: A template document used to avoid re-typing common text. CORRECT-KEY: The traditional typewriter correction key. It is used to delete the previous character. CURRENT-DRIVE: The disk drive from which all subsequent document loading/saving will take place (default drive). CUT & PASTE: Cut refers to moving or copying a portion of text from a document to a temporary file. Paste refers to inserting or pasting the temporary file into the current document. DOCUMENT: "The Write Perspective" uses this term for any text unit, and will highlight any document name that ends in ".DOC" when listing document names. ESCAPE KEY: Is used to exit or "back out" of an unwanted function. FORMAT CHARACTER: This is a special character that must precede every format statement. It tells "The Write Perspective" that a particular line of text is not part of the document, but rather, defines some print or formatting function or parameters. FUNCTION-KEYS: Any keys other than the usual typewriter keys, used to provide additional functions. - T H E E N D - Page 205 SECTION III INTRODUCTION Alphabetical Listings -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- - INTRODUCTION - We thought that rather than produce an index that sends you to some other place in the manual, we would discuss the subject of interest right in the the "index" itself. The titles that follow are intended to be a quick reference to the many aspects of The Front Office. These subjects are meant to supplement your understanding of The Front Office, while the first section of The Front Office manual is a step-by-step guide through various procedures. This third section of the The Front Office manual consists of alphabetical subjects which we might call an on-the-spot-index. Initially, the screen instructions that appear throughout The Front Office will help you as well. Please keep in mind that, as with anything new, your speed at first may be slow. However your keystrokes will buffer, i.e., you can type ahead as when using WordStar and PC-Write. But, do read through these pages before beginning. The speed of Clipper and the aspect of keyboard buffering when using the various menus can take some getting used to at first. Later, you will appreciate your ability to zip through various screens without having to stop and read them, by touching a single key to go from screen to screen. Page 206 - CONTENTS - Auto dial. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 207 Backup Beginning Call Report. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 208 Codes Commissions Contact Reporting Control W/PgDn key . . . . . . . . . . . . 209 Cost Control Customers Customer Report D.Com. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 210 Defaults Deletions Edit Prospects Envelopes/Labels Error Control. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 211 ESC & Stop Listings File Stepping Follow-up Control Job Tracking Letters. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 212 Letters - Once Letters - Multiple Listing Listing Control. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 213 Names Names - Contact Password Payments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 214 Paid Dates-Commissions Performance Figures Prospect Codes Record Deletes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 215 Replace Codes Runtime/Compiler Reports Salesperson/Commissions. . . . . . . . . . 216 Sales Orders Screen Instructions Setup/Installation . . . . . . . . . . . . 217 Status Codes Tax on Sales . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 218 Telemarketing Transaction Codes Update Calls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 219 User Defined Codes Walknet Word Processor APPENDIX A, B, C, D, E . . . . . . . . . . 220 Page 207 SECTION III AUTO DIAL Alphabetical Listings -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Auto Dial- The Front Office will automatically dial your phone using the telephone number as shown on the Edit Routines menu. After selecting the name of the individual or company touch <T>-Telephone and providing that you have a modem connected to your company the phone will be dialed. The speaker in the modem will sound out the tones for the dialed number. (If this does not happen or you receive a message concerning you printer, the you have neglected to setup you modem correctly for the communications port [COM1, COM2, COM3, COM4]. See -Utilities, <S>-Setup to correct the oversight). Touch < and pick up the receiver or use your speaker phone. You will be placed in the Call Report screen to complete a report. Your call will be timed and when you finish the elapsed time will appear in the upper right corner of the call record screen. Touch < again to hang up the modem. If you use the <T>-Telemarketing selection from the Main Menu you can do this same procedure while using the Telemarketing feature of TFO. You can also automatically dial any of the Contact Names after bringing up the Contact Names screen. Backups- The operating system offers backup and restore software. Use 'backup c:\tfo\tfofiles\*.dbf A:' to copy your files to a diskette from a hard disk subdirectory while at you DOS prompt. Do this weekly, but more at heavy entry times. Backup cannot be emphasized enough!! backup, backup and backup some more. Never backup on the most current set of disk. Always use the previous set of backup disks. In this way if anything goes wrong during a backup run, your only set of disks will not be destroyed. The files to backup have the extensions .DBF, .DBT, and .NDX. If you keep these files on you \TFO directory each time you exit The Front Office you will see the following message urging you to move them: B A C K U P S If database files are together in the same subdirectory, it is recommended that they be setup on a separate subdirectory. Include .DBF, .NTX, and .DBT files when you move them. This way, backups will be easier. After copying the files, use 'tfo utility' and <D>-Drive Change to inform TFO of the new subdirectory. Beginning- (SEE THE PARAGRAPH ON SETUP FIRST) First make a copy of of your source diskette(s) using the DOS diskcopy command. Then make a subdirectory using DOS's MKDIR command. Then put diskette 1 in your A: drive and log onto A:. From A: type 'install C:\tfo' from the A: prompt where 'tfo' is the name of the sub-directory that you made. This will copy the programs and files to the hard disk. To install on a laptop computer type 'install B:. Log onto C:\TFO and type TFO to begin the program and to setup TFO. Se-lect S-Setup from the special TFO Utility Menu. Files will be indexed and you will be asked to indicate which word processor you will be using. The TFO.BAT file may be modified according to the word processor that you se-lect. A memory file, called IAMCLEAR.MEM, has been pre-installed. It holds various dates, printer, word prosessor, modem, screen colors, etc., and this file can be changed using this special utility envoked from the DOS prompt, tfo utility. Or it can be changed from within TFO using the U-Utility menu and S-Setup. TFO comes with some sample prospects so you can practice. They may be deleted using [U]-Utilities from the Main Menu and then selecting [C]- Code Maintainance and choice 'A'. Page 208 SECTION III CALL Alphabetical Listings -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Calls- The <C>-Calls selection from the Edit Routines menu produces the Call Report Update screen. Here one can update, print and delete contact data in the Call Report file. You can enter up to approximately 20 pages of information for each call report. You can have as many call reports as hard disk space will permit for any prospect or customer. When you select -Print, a report will be displayed on the screen or printer for that prospect/customer. To show contact detail by salesman see <S>-Sales from the Main Menu. This report will reflect calls between a range of dates for a chosen salesperson. Call records will automatically appear after you select <T>-Tph call from the Edit Menu in order for you enter a call record during the phone conversation. When adding call records the elapsed time of the call is computed and reflected as the 'Duration' of the call in hours and minutes on both the Edit Screen and in the Salesman Contact Report. This time is governed by the length of time that you are actually in the Call Report routine, not when you hang-up the phone should you be using the auto-dialer feature. Codes- You will also need to decide what Salesman codes and Prospect codes to use for the various names, companies or accounts that you wish to enter. These a the primary Level I codes and must be on every prospect or customer records. When the Main Menu appears for the first time after installing TFO, you will see that sample prospects codes are shown. You use -Utility to input prospect codes and <S>-Sales module to input salesman codes. Do not use salesman code '0' and it is best to use initials for Salesman codes. You can also assign a Product code and a Type code. See Appendix E for one idea for code makeup. Codes are entered from the Edit screen, and they can be any alphabetical code that you may wish to use. Be sure to record them so that you can maintain standards. Because you will be able to draw out any customer from the database to write letters to about the various products or type of customer he may be. Transaction Codes are used in the Cost Control system. They are E-Estimate, L-Labor, M-Material, O-Order, P-Payment Received. See Transaction codes subject. Commissions-The Order Control Module is obtained by using <C>-Commission from the Main Menu. Here you can enter shipment and paid dates on each item created from a Sales Order. First do a search for the customer in question and than you can go forward and backward through his outstanding orders to obtain the order for the particular acknowledgement in question. Enter a ship date using the <R>-Revise selection and the code letter 'S'. Use the letter 'P' for payment dates and payment amounts. These amounts are the commissions recieved from principals or suppliers. Use the <C>-Commission and Shipment report selection to print the various reports. Outstanding commissions not paid are shown so that you can track any unpaid commissions. You can also print a Salesman Commission report from this Order Control Module, as well as from the <S>-Salesman module off the Main Menu. Be sure to follow screen instructions as you use the Commission module. Page 209 SECTION III CONTACT REPORTS Alphabetical Listings -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Contact Reports- <C>-Calls from the Edit Menu permits you to enter results and report sales contact information. Reports on the printer or screen are available as a record of your contacts. The <S>-Search routine from the Calls Menu will find the prospect that you select so that you can type in the results of the contact, print results or delete the data already printed. The <D>-Delete feature will delete all contact entries at once, so be certain to -Print the call report before any deleting any records. The Edit Routine screen will inform you of those names who do not have any contact information on file. When entering a name at the Main Menu and the name is in the Prospect/Customer file than the last call recorded will be displayed on the bottom of the screen. The Calls Menu will also appear automatically when you use the automatic phone dialer. Begin typing your report after verifying the follow-up date and the name of the contact. Control W/PgDn- When editing or adding data you may exit the routine with these two key strokes. Hold the 'Ctrl' key and then touch 'W' to exit a screen. This will not cause data to be lost, and speeds up screen exiting. The 'PgDn' key on the ten key pad does the same thing. Cost Control- Your accountant can give you a percentage figure for what indirect business expenses are to total earnings. TFO calls this figure overhead. Profit is the balance after expenses for labor, material and salesman commissions. TFO considers these costs direct business expense. Direct expenses are entered into the Cost Control system. What is left, after the percentage for indirect expenses and actual direct expenses are subtracted from a sale, is what management may distribute for salaries, business expansion, new equipment, advertising or increased inventory. This balance guides us in running our businesses. Once quotations or estimates are given to a prospect you can tract any resulting sales order. TFO provides order status reports, job costs and actual net profit by job & customer. Costs for labor, material, and freight are entered. Sales, commissions & payments update this record and figures are compared to the estimates. Reports indicate continuing profit status. The job file can be easily changed as conditions change prior to payment. All jobs are controlled by an internal job number and letter. Customers- If a prospect is coded with a '00' for customer when a sales orders is completed. Sales information, eg., sales YTD, earnings YTD, product codes, customer type codes and details on what was purchased are all by- products of producing a Sales Order. The Sales Order is produced using <O>-Orders from the Main Menu. Earnings a written to Salesman record, and a Job Costs file for the customer is made up when a Sales Order is prepared with a Job Estimate on file. Information is also passed to the Supplier and Commission module when a Sales Order is prepared. Customer Report, Earnings- Printed from the <R>-Report selection run off of the Main Report Menu, this report lists all the 'prospects' coded with the prospect code '00' for customer. The report shows what was purchased, when purchased, and the product and type codes that you assigned to this customer. Any zero figures mean the following: The "Total Profit" figure will be "0.00" if you do not complete job costing information and enter customer payments. Also, if you coded a prospect with a "00" prospect code and then did not create a Sales Order, there will not be a dollar amount in the "Total Sales" field as well. Therefore, when you see these zero entries, perhaps you may wish to correct these oversites. Remember that the prospect code is changed to "00" when you create a Sales Order. Should you not use The Front Office for Sales Orders and you are using the Manager version, then simply do not create this report. Page 210 SECTION III D.COM Alphabetical Listings -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- D. com- Type the letter <D>, <Enter> from the DOS prompt and you will receive an alphabetical listing of all the files on that resident drive. D.COM is a program furnished as an extra by IAM as it is now public domain software. Appendix D has the files that you should have for TFO. WordStar, MailMerge or PC-Write are not included with TFO. Defaults- You can select <V>-Variables To Default off the -Utility menu. This routine permits establishing anything you wish in seven fields. Once the field is filled with the changed data the same information appears each time you enter a company or name. The date is a good example of a default value. Also, in order to cause any group of letters or envelopes to print out collectively you may default either the salesman code or the prospect code field for each record after printing out the group of letters. Deletions- Some deletions are for routine file maintenance and some deletions are to correct errors, e.g., deleting sales orders can be both. You can delete using <J>-Job Cost, <D>-Delete Jobs. This will also permit the deletion of all financial information, sales orders, jobs, sales earnings. Use <O>-Orders, <V>-View orders to delete a particular sales order. Prospects can be deleted individually using the Edit Routines. Sales personnel can be deleted using the <S>-Sales module. Using - Utilities and <C>-Code Maintenance, select <A>-delete All prospects and all prospect will be deleted. Individual <C>-Call records and <N>-contact Names can also be deleted from the Edit Routines screen. Paid sales orders and paid jobs can also be deleted prior to a date of your choice. Edit Prospects- Selecting <R>-Revise will move the cursor to the first field in the record once having entered the name. You can select <S>-Search and be asked for another prospect to edit. Location of prospects is done either off the Main Menu screen or from the various search routines such as the search available in the 'One Letter' selection. Both company and individual names are automatically searched. An unfound prospect will enable the 'Add' routine from any search request. The -Print selection will print all detail on any prospect on the printer. The <D>-Delete selection will remove the prospect data from the database file. A deleted prospect will no longer appear on any reports but will still remain in the file. The <M>-Master File Reconstruct selection from the -Utility menu erases the deleted prospects permanently from the file and will reindex the three files called Iamcall.dbf, Iamcont.dbf, and primary master file of names and addresses called Iamname.dbf. This should be done periodically to clear out your files. Envelopes/Labels- Envelopes are done the same as letters, i.e., you can do all the envelopes for a group of coded prospects. Multiple envelopes use the same .LST file that is prepared for multiple letters. So multiple letters must be done first so that the data files' title is available for the envelopes. The .ENV file that is created can be assigned the same file title as the .LST file. Labels are arranged for typing from TFO. Envelopes are arranged for typing from word processor. The label program permits you to test-print the format with X's. Labels can be printed 1, 2, or 3 across and spaces between labels can be varied. Three inch high labels are printed but only one across. You may print labels using Avery Laser printer labels. Letters produced will match the labels produced by using the same selection levels. The record number can be printed on the labels in cases where you may be placing the labels on cards for return. Select <R>-Record number on labels from the Labels Menu to cause the record number to print before selecting the -Print Labels command. Page 211 SECTION III ERROR CONTROL Alphabetical Listings -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Error Control- Each menu (where you are given a choice) requires that you select one of the choices given. If you do not, the menu will repeat itself until you select a choice the program recognizes, or until you touch <Enter> to exit. Esc & Stop Listings- The 'ESC' key is used to exit each menu and return to the previous screen. To exit from a long screen listing, simply touch <Q> to Quit. Should you interrupt printing by touching the CTRL, ALT, DEL keys or by turning off your computer then you will more than likely corrupted your indexes. These files can be reconstructed by using the <TFO UTILITY> phase from the DOS prompt. When the Utility Menu appears select the - Index files selection. File Stepping- File searching is done by the company or name field. A step feature is used to walk through the files should many names be the same. From any screen that permits a search, you will notice a -Backward or an <F>-Forward menu selection. Either letter, when touched, will bring up either the prior or the next record in the file. The search will follow the sequence entered, i.e., if you entered a Company the records step according to company order, and the same when having searched for a Name, they step through name sequences. Follow-up Control- Each prospect has provision for a follow-up date. This is a future date that will be a reminder for you to contact a prospect. It is automatically entered whenever you add or edit. The period of days controlling the follow-up date is set using the <S>-Setup menu. For any prospect so dated, a Follow-up Listing will be printed for those prospects or salesman dated within the two date parameters that you specify. Select <R>-Reports from the Main Menu and then choose - Prospect Reports from the Reports Menu. For a report on prospects for any one day simply enter the same date twice: once for the 'beginning' date and once for the 'ending' date. Hit <Enter> to input blank default dates to print all prospects for follow-up. You might want to setup a code for following up on prospects as well. An automatic follow-up date is generated by TFO whenever you edit a company/prospect name. This date is 10, 15 or 30 days in the future depending on how many days where selected using the -Utility screen. The date can be changed during editing and call report activity. Keep good follow-up date habits, and calls can be placed most anytime. Also, use the <S>-Salesman selection from the Main Menu to run the Call Reports by salesman. This will also assist you will follow-up control. Job Tracking- From the Cost Control menu select R-Reporting and a report showing how jobs are progressing will be produced. Estimates/quotations are compared to actual material & labor figures. Payments from the customer or user are compared to each sale by Job Cost number. The Job Cost number consist of an internal record number, a job letter (up to 26 jobs per customer) and a master transaction coded as 'E' for estimate. For example, 354AE is the first job (A) for customer number 354. The 'E' means that this record holds the estimate on this job. It is important to remember to delete any old or close-out jobs. Simply delete the transaction coded 'E' and all transactions for that job will be removed from file. The dates used in each job transaction are the dates that the transaction was entered and they can be changed easily. You can reassign job letters, eg., deleting job, <D>, means at some future time you can assign the deleted job letter again to a new job. The program will not permit duplicate job letters, and constantly shows you which jobs are still open. Page 212 SECTION III LETTERS Alphabetical Listings -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Letters- Select <M>-Mailings from the Main Menu to do multiple letters. Name and address data is written to the word processor and merged with the chosen pre-edited (in the case of multiple letters) word processor file letter. TFO creates the various mail merge files to use when merging data and text. These files will differ depending on your choice of word processor using the -Utility Menu and the <S>-Setup selection. You must be sure that you have told TFO which word processor you intend to use. The Write Perspective is the default word processor. The file extensions should all be the standardized such as .DOC, .TEM, .TXT. You title the files. You can select salesman or prospect codes to produce letters for many individuals to receive the same letter, or you can select only one letter to print to one individual. Envelopes use the same .DAT or .LST file that is produced for single and multiple letters. Letters, Once- The 'O' command will write one file per selected prospect from the Edit Routines screen. Enter the prospects name either with the <S>- Search command, or from the Main Menu to obtain the Edit Routine screen. The system date becomes a date for your letter. TFO will create the necessary files for the word processor merge program, or depending on the word processor used, TFO will create the actual letter with the name, address, salutation, etc., already imbedded. Use <W> to exit and write the letter using the title for the letter that TFO requested. It is a good idea to use a simple title based on the prospects name or initials, so that you can remember it later in the word processor. With PC-Write, The Write Perspective and WordStar you will return to the TFO program that called the word processor, but with other word processors you will return to the sign-on screen after printing your letters. Letters, Multiple- The <M>-Many lttrs command, selected after choosing <M>- Mailings from the Main Menu, will produce letters to everyone or to individuals selected by codes chosen from the selection menus. When you use 'M' to write many letters, you must remember the title given to the file in order to edit the letter later using some word processors. TFO will ask you where you want the date located on the letters. With WordStar the letter must be pre-written and already exist. TFO will ask you for the name of this pre-written 'form' letter. This will not be the case with PC-Write, Write Perspective or other word processors since the letter is written later using the merge file created by The Front Office. Listings- Prospects can be listed on the printer or displayed on the screen. All prospects can be listed/displayed, or they can be listed by particular codes depending on the choice of codes selected from Level 3, 2, and/or 1 choices. All listings are printed on 9 1/2 X 11 inch continuous paper. Listings are produced form the <R>-Report selection off of the Main Menu, and the -Prospects from the Report Menu. Also see the <C>-Commission selection for other reports from suppliers/principals. TFO leads one through the various code selections and sub-classifications for listings. We suggest that you print out listings to match the letters that you send and use the reports for follow-up phoning for sales or appointments. (See listing control). Page 213 SECTION III LISTING CONTROL Alphabetical Listings -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Listing Control- You can select listings, letters and envelopes by salesman or prospect codes, or alphabetically. Within region or office codes (Level 1) you can select salesman and prospect codes (Level 2) and then you can select a listing by either zip code, follow-up date, record number, etc. (Level 3). You must have a Level 3 code at all times. Should you wish many letters to be printed out to one particular code, then it is suggested that you run a listing by that code. For example, print out salesman by zip code, and then use this listing to decide how to break up your task into smaller units for a particular mailing. Then print your letters, envelopes and a listing for that particular mailing. Use this zip code listing for making your prospect calls and for following up on who you sent marketing letters to. Name/Company- The programs will automatically align individual names and titles. Company names can be entered in the 'Company' field, or in the 'Name' field. 'Name' can also be a persons last name. Both fields are searched when only one is filled in regardless of the choice indicated, ie., <C>-Company or <N>-Name. The database file allows space for 35 characters for name and for company. Should you enter more than the 35 characters allowed for individuals (for the total of all parts of a name) then the program will ask you to correct the name by shortening it in some way. Most often 35 characters for a 'Company' will be enough. If you only enter a 'name' then only 'name' will print on screens and reports, and likewise for 'company'. If you use both, both will appear everywhere. Flexibility is such that you can place a company title in the 'name' field. Be sure to select from the -Utility, and <S>-Setup screens the sequence that you prefer for reporting purposes: 'C' will make the company field primary for listings and 'N' will make the name field primary for sorting on listings. Names, contact- Each prospect/customer record permits up to 99 additional names and telephone numbers along with job responsibilities for each contact name. These names can be selected and easily used in 'attention of' and letter writing activity. They also help greatly recalling contact details, acting as a phone directory. They can be automatically dialed from the Edit Routines Menu after selecting <N>-contact Names. The <M>- More selection will page forward should more than 5 names be in each record. Enter an existing number to change or dial a chosen name. Enter the next available number to add new names to the file. Passwords- A password is requested when you enter <S>-Salesman, from the Main Menu. To enter the Salesman File area of TFO you will be asked for a password. The first time that you select the Salesman File, simply hit the <Enter> key, the password is blank. Subsequent entry to the Salesman File will be according to the password that you enter by using the <C>- Change Password option off the main salesman menu. When changing the password you will be asked to enter your choice twice in order to verify that you spelled the word exactly the way that you wanted it spelled. The password that you enter will never appear anywhere, so be very sure that you do not forget it..WRITE IT DOWN. Page 214 SECTION III PAID DATES, COMM Alphabetical Listings -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Paid Dates, Comm- The Commission Payments and Shipping control module is obtain from the Main Menu by selecting C-Commissions. Select U-Update and each item on a sales order can be marked as paid when you receive a check from your principal. First, search for the customer in question and than you can go forward and backward through his outstanding orders to obtain the order for the particular acknowledgement in question. Enter a ship date using the code letter 'S'. Use the letter 'P' for payment dates and payment amounts. These amounts are the commissions recieved from principals or suppliers. Use the R-Report Comm. & Ship. selection to print the various reports. Outstanding commissions not paid are shown so that you can track any unpaid commissions. You can also print a Salesman Commission report from this Order Control Module, as well as from the S- Salesman module off the Main Menu. Be sure to follow screen instructions as you use the Commission Module. Payments- Payments are entered as a <T>-Transaction from the Job Cost Menu (<J> from the Main Menu). Payments are entered against a selected job and a selected Sales Order. Therefore, Sales Orders must be entered before a payment can be posted. A balance is reported on a customer using the Sales Order Job Costing report and the Orders Paid Report. Aging is not done as TFO is not an accounting or accounts receivable system. Payments withdraw any corresponding sales tax from the original Sales Order and create a tax due entry in the Sales Tax control system. (See Taxes on Sales). Partial payments will withdraw a partial tax on the corresponding Sales Order, so use the <T>-Tax selection from the Main Menu should you want to adjust the tax entries in partial payment situations. When entering payments you will be asked for a Sales Order Completion Date and a Job Completion Date. These dates control job costs profit figures and Sales Order file deletions. When printing the Paid Orders Report, you will asked whether you want to delete any Sales Orders from file that have a minus or zero balance and that are older than a cut-off date that you can enter. Performance Figures- The <S>-Salesman system from the Main Menu is a system for salesman performance which holds earnings and performance date on salesman. Sales quotas, volume and last years figures are manipulated for each salesman that you designate. Salesman performance is reported in order to verify the accuracy of the data in the files, and to report on whether: 1. Performance goals are being met for each period. 2. The current period is better than the prior period. 3. Current period is better than the same period last year. Commissions from Sales Orders are written to the sales performance files as earnings in the month for which the order is processed, thereby reporting the performance comparisons when using the <S>-Salesman selection. They are also written to the Commission module for commission tracking. Commissions can be split between two salesman when producing a Sales Order. They can be overriden with a dollor amount and not calculated from the percentage on the salesman record. Prospect Codes- Whenever a prospect is added, the file is coded or flagged. (See "Defaults" preceding for more on coded records.) The codes available are 00 through 99 or a combination of letters. You need to keep track of the codes that you make up by using the <C>-Change Codes routine from the -Utility selection from the Main Menu. Prospect code '00' is reserved for customers. Any prospect so coded will automatically cause that prospect to appear on customer reports and produce earnings YTD and commission records. The <O>-Order routine off of the Main Menu will change the prospect code to '00'. Page 215 SECTION III RECORD DELETES Alphabetical Listings -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Record Deletes- Records can be deleted by code group as well as by deleting individual name. Single deletions are done using the Main Menu screen. Type the name for deletion, and after the edit screen appears touch <D> to delete an individual record. Also, call records and contact names associated with the record will also be deleted. Deletion of a code group is accomplished using the sub-menu, <C>-Code Maintenance, from the - Utility screen as mentioned below for Replace Codes. Also note <A>-delete All prospects from the Code Maintenance menu. This selection, after prompting you to be very sure, will delete the entire prospect, call records and contact name information. Using the <J>-Job Cost selection from the Main Menu, and then selecting <D>-Job Deletes will enable you to delete all financial, sales order and job costing dollar information from the system. Use this these mass deletes with caution as they are only intended to remove 'practice' data from the system and to start anew with financial and prospect data. Replace Codes- You can change codes by code group. For example, using the - Utility screen select <C>-Code Maintenance, to enter the Code Maintenance menu. Then select <R>-Replace Codes by Group where you will be asked for the old and the new code. In this manner, you can quickly separate blocks of prospects to control listings and letters based on activity. Always maintain code zero (00) for customers. But other codes, for example, could be code (01) for dead leads, or code (02) for one industry group or code (03) for another, or code (04) for your local club. Don't forget to change the codes as mentioned above as a memory jogger at the bottom of the Edit Routines menu by selecting <C>-Code Maintenance from the - Utility menu. Reports- To report customer information, code status, sales and profits year to date for each customer with totals. To report customer orders in sales order or alphabetical sequence for any chosen period. The profit report of customers can be summarized on the screen to see quite easily how productive sales activity has been. Profits are posted to the customer record after the Job Costing Report called "Payment vs Actual Cost" is printed using <J>-Job costing reports. Net profit is posted according to the dates given. Therefore, only print the "Payments vs Actual Cost" report according to a prescribed schedule, eg, weekly or monthly. You choose the dating each time,so be careful or you could duplicate your figures or miss jobs. (Job Costing, TFO-24). When printing Sales Orders by date, be sure that you have informed TFO of whether or not you desire to have your company's name and address printed in the heading. Some may wish to use letter head to print Sales Orders, but if not, use the - Utilities and <S>-Setup menus, and select 'N' and answer 'Y' to the name and address question. Run-time/Compiler- TFO comes in a compiled version only. The compiling is done using Clipper. Clipper makes a 'C' lanquage executable file along with a serious of overlays called .ovl files. The Front Office source lanquage is Clipper. Source code is available at extra charge. We will consider customizing The Front Office for those who have special needs. Our rates as of this date are based on $25.00 per hour, but are subject to change at any time. Page 216 SECTION III SALES COMM Alphabetical Listings -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Sales Comm- You may literally have as many sales people as disk space codes will allow in the system. Sales records are updated using the <S>-Sales menu. Salesperson codes and the associated name, address and commission data are entered and will appear on the Edit Menu as a reminder to you. When ever you add or edit a salesperson name, the performance file will be available for changes as well. When assigning codes use a filling left zeros (0) should you opt to use numbers! For the Manager version, you would assign a commission percentage for a salespersons that is usually lower than the principal/vendor percentage recorded in the <V>-Vendor module. The percentage on a Sales Order is the full amount received by the company as either a total markup as a dealer receives, or it is a commission percentage received as perhaps a manufacturers representative. The salesman commission is what is paid to the salesperson as a lower portion of the total received for what was sold. If the company gets 35%, and salesperson gets 5% then record 5% as a salesperson's commission. Salesman commission is calculated on the sale amount (total invoiced) or the margin amount (that amount indicated in the vendor file). In the case of a sole proprietor, such commission amounts are optional and will be reflected on reports accordingly. Sales Orders- TFO accepts sales order data and prints a copy at entry time or enmass from the reports menu. The prospect code is made '0' when you select 'O-sales Order' from the Main Menu. You can select the prospect name, use 'S'-Search. The top of the form will be filled in with prospect file data. You can place up to 6 items on the order. The sales tax percentage that is used comes from the 'T-Tax' selection off of the Main Menu. The sales order will verify salesman codes and check that the Tax file is correctly setup. Order numbers are automatically created by TFO. They are used internally by TFO to keep orders, jobs and payments properly associated. Earnings for salesman performance are integrated with the Salesman Performance system. Sales order data is also sent to the Job Costing system. The primary reason for a marketing and prospecting system to create sales orders is to eliminate the extra work by home office order entry personnel. TFO offers users the practical feature of transmitting sales orders to the home office via modem, thus reducing paperwork and cost. The sales order that you are using can be customized for your company's sales requirements. Sales Orders must be entered before payment transactions are entered. You can delete Sales Orders should you make any errors. See also Performance Figures. Screen Instructions- Instructions are presented throughout each screen that appears, so that the best way to learn to use this system is to simply start hitting the keys and practice. First, spend some time moving from one menu screen to another off the Main Menu. Most every routine that you enter will permit you to EXIT without forcing you to create entries. Later you can add a few names and addresses and begin some practice editing and writing letters. Sometimes becoming familiar with all key strokes is perhaps the greatest challenge in computing today. Key <F1> or <H> for H E L P. Help screens can be selected interactively for the screen that you are on, or you can select the HELP menu from the Main Menu and other numerous menus. Page 217 SECTION III SETUP/INSTALLATION Alphabetical Listings -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Setup/Installation-The first thing you should do is make a copy of your TFO diskettes furnished by I a m. Put the original diskettes in a safe place and use your copy diskette to install TFO. Using a hard disk computer all programs and files should be on the same drive. For a floppy disk system the install program will place your .DBF files on B: and the "tfo utility" will index files to B:. It is a good idea to have the "prompt $p$g" and "path" commands in your Autoexec.bat file. In the Tfo.bat file (which starts TFO) the line "Set clipper=v006;r132" sets aside RAM for your word processor. For some word processors the ";R132" phrase will be omitted and a "switch" line will be added to the Tfo.bat file. These adjustments are made automatically when you setup you Word Processor during a first time install and from the -Utility menu. Should you have difficulty running your word processor from TFO change the R132 to R144 or R156 to reserve more RAM. Memory resident programs may need to be cleared before running TFO. Also, the Config.Sys file must have 2 lines that read: "files=20" and "buffers=8". Use the word processor (WP -b) to edit these files from the TFO prompt, or from the "Tfo Utility". Please see the paragraph labled 'beginning' to see how to use the Install.bat and the Update.bat files on the diskettes. Your word processor is selected and the Tfo.bat file is modified when using the S-Setup program from "Tfo utility". Status Codes- Prospect/customers can have a four character status code mode up of your choosing. This alpha-betical/numerical code is intended to allow you to follow-up on the various conditions or status of each prospect. You may use such ideas as CALL, NI (no interest), DEMO, APPT, CB (call back), etc. Later you can report by these status codes using <R>-Reports. When leads are returned use the code to assign where the lead was originated. In this manner, one prospect code could be broken down to allow lead's analyst for marketing studies. Marketing survey results can mean profits for your advertising expenditures. Page 218 SECTION III TAXES, SALES Alphabetical Listings -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Taxes, Sales- Sales taxes are figured by The Front Office for each line item on the Sales Order. The total of the Sales Order and the total of the tax is passed to the job cost control system. Here, when payments are posted against a job, both the Sales Order and the sales tax systems are updated as well as the job cost system. Entering a <T>-Tax from the Main Menu will disclose the tax entries that were created by a payment. A State Tax Report is produced each month for reporting purposes and so your check can be written to the state. The first time that you enter the <T>-Tax selection you will be asked for details concerning your company, it's name & address, tax ID number, etc. This data can be changed using the ID selection from the 'T-Tax' menu. Telemarketing- The method of stepping through a selected group of prospects in sequence. Using the same method used to select groups of prospects when doing labels, for example, is the same method used to do <T>- Telemarketing. Telemarketing is the selection from the Main Menu that invokes this stepping feature. Changes can be made to the file and call records updated when phoning (or revising) each record. Telemarketing is a fast way to call lots of people or to make changes to codes. With the automatic phone dialer you will need a modem and the telemarketing feature will be even faster. Transaction Codes- (Also see Cost Control). Single letter codes are used to control and process Job Costing Reports. These codes are: E=Estimate or Quote L=Labor costs M=Material costs O=Sales Order P=Payment Received R=Reserve for Commission Their use is controlled by the 'A-Add' and 'R-Revise' transactions. For example, you can have one estimate (E) per job, but as many entries for other codes as needed. The 'O' and 'R' (providing there is a salesperson commission) code is created automatically when a Sales Order is processed. When no job is on file when a sales order is done, an 'E'-Estimate will be created as well. Later, use <J>-Job cost to fill-in the estimates description. You can review how the codes appear each time that you enter the 'T-Transactions' portion of the Job Cost module. Changes to the transactions can be freely accomplished except for code (E); it cannot be changed or a second one added to the same job, but the estimate figures can be 'R-Revise'. Page 219 SECTION III UPDATE CALLS Alphabetical Listings -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Update Calls- The <C>-Calls selection from the Main Menu produces the Call Report Update screen. Here one can update, print and delete contact data in the Call Report file. You can date and enter many lines of information by individual contact on a prospect/customer. When you select -Print a report will be displayed on the screen or printer. It will show contact detail by prospect/customer and the elapsed time for each call. As call information is entered the elapsed time is kept whether you are using the automatic dialer or not. It's purpose is to indicate how much time is spent on the phone, and is primarially intended for management purposes. Call reports can be printed by salesperson through the <S>-Sales module using a range of dates. You can also record call information to disk files using <W>-Walknet from the -Utility menu. These call records on disk can be by a range of dates, and can be transmitted via modem to other computers and the The Front Office can be updated again using <W>-Walknet. This feature is the reason the <C>-Contact date selection appears on the Level 3 catagory menu when selecting how records are to sorted using <W>- Walknet. (See paragraph on Walknet). User Defined Codes-Besides the Level 1, 2, and 3 selections, you may wish to define your own fields, then search based on your own criteria, and do the search on any or all the fields in one pass of the database. The UDF will work with the 1, 2, and 3 selections. First you need to define the fields (field1, field2, etc.). Use -Utility, <S>-Setup to title any of the 15 fields with a title of your choice. The titles will later appear on the prospect Edit and Add screens so that the codes can be recorded. Each field will accept a 10 character code. In the Edit Routines, touch the F10 key to edit the UDF's. Second when doing reports, letters, telemarketing, etc., you can search the database by the contents of any one of the fields using the following verbs: Equals [=], Greated/Equal [>=], Does not equal [<>], Less than/Equal [<=]. You then enter the codes or data criteria for the selected field using the above verbs. When locating records using multiple fields you will be prompted for the connecting word, either AND or OR. What you select is what you will get, meaning other records will not be located. Think of the process as a filter. Walknet- Selected groups of prospects can be written to a file that you title for use on another copy of TFO. Output database information can be on diskette or to another directory. Diskettes can be inputted to another copy of TFO on another computer. The input part of Walknet will check for any duplicates, and permit you to skip, add, or write over any suspect duplicate in the file. Also, should you wish to remove any old records from your database, you can delete them by the same sort selection after Walknetting them to a diskette. Later you may want to recover the deleted records. In the meantime, database size can be maintained at more reasonable levels much like you would do to purge a manual filing system. An Standard Data File with fixed record lengths and field lengths can also be produced. (See paragraph on Update Calls). Word Processor- The Front Office the word processors included for integration are PC-Write, WordStar, MicroSoft Word, PFS:Professional (after a fashion), Word Perfect, Lotus Manuscript, and "The Write Perspective". The Write Perspective is included with TFO. and The Should you want to use a different word processor, IAM will be glad to customize TFO for you. You may call on 603-938-2127 to discuss how we can best satisfy your requirements. The Write Perspective is TFO's own word processor. We feel that it is the easiest to use on the market today. When you inform TFO of the word processor that you are using the "Tfo.bat" file (the file used to start The Front Office is adjusted to accomodate your choice of word processor. (See paragraph on Setup) - E N D - Page 220 Appendix A Page 1 of 1 Sample letter -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The sample letter that follows has been written using Wordstar. Use <D> for "Enter a Document File" from the WordStar "No File Menu". Notice that there is no salutation, no ".op" at the beginning, and no ".pa" at the end of the letter. The letter can be used later, after you have entered <M> for MailMerge and opened your text .Txt file created by <O> for "One Letter" in The Front Office. Use the Wordstar command <Ctrl>,<K>,<R> to read the title of this letter to your (.Txt) file. The letter title will also be required when you are asked for it using <M> for "Many letters". The Front Office will add the letter title automatically to the MailMerge file created by TFO. Instructions for using PC- Write are given in the file created by TFO when you go to merge the PC-Write .Tem file. Perhaps you recall our recent response to your request for information about The FRONT OFFICE, a sales, marketing, and job costing business system. If not, briefly, TFO is menu-driven to define prospects, salesmen and customers, to do mailings, and to follow-up on leads. The system manipulates prospective customer information, leads and quote activity, coded sales records, and contact information. TFO also reports sales performance. WordStar and PC-Write can be integrated with TFO to produce letters and envelopes. TFO produces letters, envelopes, labels, and reports selectively by prospect code, salesman code, zip code, follow-up date and customer. Call reports on contact information affords complete flexibility and control. In addition, any file of names and addresses can be manipulated and used by TFO. TFO produces Sales Orders which integrate with Job costing to process estimates, actual costs and payments. TFO is available MS-DOS/PC-DOS for the IBM-PC and 100% compatibles, so please be certain to indicate which computer you will be using and the type of diskette drive you have. So order your diskettes today by including $15.00 for postage and handling. Or call 603-938-2127 and use your Visa or Master Card to receive a full-running demo of TFO. We know that using The Front Office will mean more sales for you, and improved profits. It has for us. Very truly yours, Howard A. Brooks, President Page 221 Appendix B Page 1 of 2 File Table -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- SOME INDEX FILES FILE NAME INDEX SEQUENCE Prospect database: Office sequence: IAMINAME.NTX Name OCPROD.NTX IAMIPNAM.NTX Prospect Code/Name OCTYPE.NTX IAMIPDAT.NTX Prospect Code/Follow-up Date OICCOMP.NTX IAMIPZIP.NTX Prospect Code/Zip Code OICNAM.NTX IAMIPSTA.NTX Prospect Code/Status Code OICREC.NTX IAMISNAM.NTX Salesman Code/Name OICSTA.NTX IAMISDAT.NTX Salesman Code/Follow-up Date OICZIP.NTX IAMISZIP.NTX Salesman Code/Zip Code OIRECNO.NTX IAMICONT.NTX Record Number/Contact Date OISCOMP.NTX IAMINDAT.NTX Follow-up Date OINAME.NTX IAMIZDAT.NTX Zip Code OISNAM.NTX IAMISTAT.NTX Status Code OISREC.NTX IAMIST.NTX State/Zip OISSTA.NTX IAMICNAM.NTX Customer/Product Code OISTAT.NTX IAMITNAM.NTX Customer/Type Code OISZIP.NTX IAMIDATE.NTX Month number OPROD.NTX IAMICREC.NTX OSTYPE.NTX IAMICNAM.NTX OSPROD.NTX etc. OICOMP.NTX Salesperson: IAMISALE.NTX Salesman Name Region sequence: IAMSALE.NTX Salesman Code RCPROD.NTX IAMNPERF.NTX Salesman Name/Yr-Mo RCTYPE.NTX IAMMPERF.NTX Yr-Mo/Salesman Code RICCOMP.NTX Sales tax RICNAM.NTX IAMTAX.NTX Yr-Mo RICOMP.NTX Job costing RICREC.NTX IAMOET.NTX Record No/Item No. RICSTA.NTX IAMOEHD.NTX Record No/Order No. RICZIP.NTX IAMOPRT.NTX Alpha. or Job Number RINAME.NTX Supplier RINZIP.NTX IAMISUP.NTX Supplier code RIRECNO.NTX Sales orders RISCOMP.NTX IAMCOND.NTX Various report sequences RISNAM.NTX Commissions and shipments RISREC.NTX IAMSCOMP Company RISSTA.NTX IAMSREC Record number RISZIP.NTX IAMSPNAME Name RIZCOMP.NTX RIZNAME.NTX RPROD.NTX RSTYPE.NTX Page 222 Appendix B Page 2 of 2 File Table -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- There are some 85 indexes and all are not listed, but this how some are done: INDEX ON !($(NAME,1,15)) TO IAMINAME INDEX ON TRECNO TO IAMIREC INDEX ON CODE+!($(NAME,1,15) TO IAMIPNAM INDEX ON CODE+!($(NAME,1,15))+ZIP TO IAMIPZIP INDEX ON CODE+!(STATUS CODE) TO IAMIPSTA INDEX ON SCODE+!(NAME,1,15) TO IAMISNAM INDEX ON SCODE+ZIP TO IAMIPZIP INDEX ON ZIP TO IAMINZIP INDEX ON STATCD TO IAMISTAT INDEX ON ST+ZIP+!($(NAME,1,15)) TO IAMIST INDEX ON CODE+PROD TO IAMICNAM INDEX ON CODE+TYPE TO IAMITNAM INDEX ON !(SNAME) TO IAMISALE INDEX ON SCODE TO IAMSALE INDEX ON !(SPNAME)+SYRMO TO IAMNPERF INDEX ON SYRMO+SPCODE TO IAMMPERF INDEX ON $(DATE,7,2)+$(DATE,1,2) TO IAMTAX INDEX ON OIRECNO+OITRAN TO IAMOET INDEX ON OHRECNO+OHORDER TO IAMOEHD INDEX ON MONTHNO TO IAMDATE INDEX ON VSUPP TO IAMISUP Using the -Utility program and the <R> selection, you can re-index the master files. This is normally not necessary, since the prospect file is automatically re-indexed and the other files are re-indexed under routine control. Keep in mind that even though programs are compiled, the .DBF files are available to you to manipulate if you have DbaseIII or Foxbase Plus. Make a copy of all of the .DBF files to another directory before you attempt to make any changes, however, so that your data files are not affected. The Clipper indexes end in .NTX and the other databases use other index methods. You cannot use Clipper's indexes with DbaseIII or IV. Remember that in order to place your files, namely: .NTX, .DBF, and .DBF, in another directory it is best to use the DOS copy command to move them. Then delete them from the old directory, and simply use the tfo utility command to <D>-Change your drive letters and subdirectory titles in The Front Office. (See procedure TFO 14). Keeping these database files separate enables more simple and more accurate backups. Remember also to backup up at least every other day. Page 223 Appendix C Page 1 of 2 Files -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Here is a listing of the files for the M a n a g e r version: PROC.OVL REPORTS2.OVL LETTERS1.OVL COST2.OVL MAIN1.OVL CALL2.OVL SALES1.OVL EDIT3.OVL VENDOR1.OVL GHELP.OVL CONTROL1.OVL SPLIT3.OVL SORT2.OVL TAX3.OVL ONE2.OVL HELP4.OVL MISC2.OVL ADD4.OVL FORMS2.OVL UTILITY4.OVL CUST2.OVL SWITCH.EXE IAMMAN.EXE GO.BAT HELP.BAT TFO.BAT INSTALL.BAT UPDATE.BAT TWP.EXE WP.PAR HELP0001.TXT HELP0002.TXT HELP0003.TXT Page 224 Appendix C Page 2 of 2 Files -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Data will be found in the following .DBF files: IAMNAME.DBF IAMSNAME.DBF IAMCONT.DBF IAMPERF.DBF IAMTAX.DBF IAMOEHD.DBF IAMOET.DBF IAMORPT.DBF IAMCOST.DBF IAMDATE.DBF IAMCTEL.DBF IAMSUP.DBF IAMSHIP.DBF IAM.DBF CONVERT.DBF IAMTNAME.DBF IAMSRPT.DBF IAMT.DBF And in one memo file: IAMCONT.DBT There are two memory files: IAMCLEAR.MEM and IAMTAX.MEM Erasing Iamclear.mem file will permit you to re-install TFO. Remember that when you do a re-install, the .Dbf files will be re-indexed. Also, you will need to edit the salesman name files which will rewrite the memory file. Do this by using the <S>-Salesman routine and by entering each salesmans' number which will write his name to the Iamclear.mem file after hitting ^W accepting the data shown. The Config.sys file must be on your root drive or C: drive. Config.sys must have these two statements in it to run TFO correctly. BUFFERS=8 FILES=20 If they are not in your Config.sys file, then insert them using your word processor. If you do not have a word processor then use the MS DOS command 'Copy con config.sys', type the two above lines at the prompt, ending each line with a carriage return, and then touch the 'ctrl' key and the letter 'Z' to enter an end of file mark. An error will occur at about the sign-on screen if the Config.sys file is not set right and on the root drive. To start The Front Office type: TFO and touch <Enter> There is also a 'back door' utility file called "utility". "TFO utility" invokes a special utility menu for reindexing, setting up and updating The Front Office. - E N D - Page 225 Appendix D Page 1 of 1 PC-Write Notes -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- You are asked to tell PC-Write about your printer using the DOS command Menuprt. When you do this, and select your printer, PC-Write creates a file called Pc.def, the printer default file. When printing mutliple and single letters please pay attention to the PC-Write Pr.def file. Edit it using PC-WRITE, and the last few lines may look as follows: In PR.DEF Meaning .L:60 Page length is 60 lines. .XT:6 Skip 6 lines before starting to print. .X:5 Printing on the left starts 5 spaces in. .R:Q Print letter quality print. .S:6 Print 6 lines to the inch. It is recommended that when you merge the .Tem file that the letter in the .Tem file be merged with the names and addresses in the .Lst file to an output file called <your name>.Out. If you do this, then you should also create a Pr.out file. Do this using the DOS copy command. Type: COPY PR.DEF PR.OUT In this manner, PC-Write will look to the Pr.out file for the dot commands that you elect to put into Pr.out thereby customizing all the printing of .Out files with Pr.out. This will mean that whenever you print an .Out file using PC- Write you will receive letter quality font. Any other file, besides an .Out file, will print using Pr.def, the default printer file. Pr.def may have the command: .R:F Prints everything in the high speed mode. Of course, dot commands can also be placed in the .Tem file just under The Front Office's comment lines (..), but we have found that it is best to keep it simple by using the PR.OUT file for all dot commands. The letter for the font that you select is shown in the lines above the dot command lines in the PR.DEF file. Try printing the 'PRINT.TST' file by typing from the DOS prompt: PR PRINT.TST It will print out using the default file, PR.DEF We cannot incorporate all the variables that are available in PC-Write for you when we create the .Tem files using The Front Office because we do not know what printer you are using. We will attempt to support your questions concerning such PC-Write considerations as will PC-Write. For now, please register your copy of PC-Write with PC-Write as their support has been excellent. - E N D - Page 226 Appendix E Page 1 of 2 Sample File Import Using PC-Write -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- COPY FILES TO THE HARD DISK: 1. Be sure that the diskette with the .DAT file is in drive A: first. A. Copy the first .DAT file from your List Manager diskettes that you wish to enter into The Front Office to your hard disk by typing: Copy A:*.DAT B. Insert the next diskette and touch the F3 key, insert the next diskette and touch [enter] to copy in the next file. C. Do 'A' and 'B' until all diskettes have been put in the A: drive and .DAT files have been copied to the hard disk. NOTE: You can list the files on the hard disk by typing from the 'C:TFO' prompt 'D *.DAT' <enter>. EDITING DATA FILES: 2. Each .DAT file now needs to be edited in order to clean out foreign characters that the List Manager has been using. A. From the 'C:TFO' prompt, type 'ED (list manager .DAT file name). FOR EXAMPLE: 'ED PAW438.DAT' <enter> B. When you see the 'memory full' message, touch the F9 key, then touch the [enter] key for '00' bytes to skip, and touch the 'ESC' key to read the file into PC-WRITE for editing. I. Touch the shift key and the F7 key, twice, to set the paragraph reform switch to 'Wrap-' II. Hold the 'Del' key down long enough to delete the beginning spaces and junk that appears before the first name in the file. III. Touch the F9 key and then touch the 'Alt' key and the 's' key. NOTE : This will print a little smile face character in the 'Find' field. IV. Touch the F10 key and then the 'DEL' key so that there is not space in the 'Replace' field, just two quotes close together. a. Touch [enter] to accept the 'Find' and 'Replace' entries. C. Touch the F10 key and you will see the cursor jump to the end of the first record. D. Touch the backspace key two times to erase the two dots. E. Touch the [enter] key to enter a carriage return and cause the first record to be on line one of your screen. Page 227 Appendix E Page 2 of 2 Sample File Import Using PC-Write -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- F. Repeat steps 3A and 3B again for each record in the file. G. Touch the F1 key and then the F5 key to rename the file to .TXT. H. Touch F1 then F2. IMPORTING THE FILES: 3. Enter TFO and go to the 'U'-Utility menu, and select 'I'-Import foreign files. A. The CONVERT.DBF file has already been made using the 'C'-Create selection, so at this time enter 'C-Create to clear the data in the last CONVERT.DBF file that was made from the previous .TXT file. I. Please read the screen instructions as you go along, touching [enter] and answering the modify question with a 'Y' which clears the files. II. Touch the 'Ctrl' key and the 'W' key to clear the CONVERT.DBF highlighted fields. B. Enter 'A'-Add to add the data in the .TXT to CONVERT.DBF after the menu returns. I. Answer the question for the name of the file with the .TXT file name [enter]. II. Answer the next question with 'SDF' [enter]. C. Select 'I'-Import files after returning to the menu. D. Answer 'N' to the re-index files question when the import is completed. NOTE: It is not necessary to re-index the files until each the .TXT file has been created and entered to the TFO master file. 4. Repeat this process by going back to step 2 for the next .DAT file. 5. Delete any .TXT files using 'Del *.TXT' at the c:\TFO> prompt being sure that all data has been properly picked up. - E N D - Page 228 Appendix F Page 1 of 5 Sample Coding Guidelines -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The following are the codes that Inter active micro, Inc. uses with The Front Office. They are given as a guide in the hope that they will trigger your imagination when designing a practical scheme for your own Type, Product, Status, etc, codes. PROSPECT CODE = 0--Company or Person who has received a product or service TYPE CODES--tells what kind of customer *IAM--Company or Person receiving Iam goods or services *TFOI--Company or Person receiving TFO TFOM--Iam or Soft Touch Customer receiving Registered TFO TFOD--Distributor receiving TFO TFOO--OEM receiving TFO TFOV--VAR or Dealer receiving TFO TFOB--BBS receiving TFO TFOL--Library receiving TFO TFOR--Reviewer receiving TFO *$15I--Company or Person receiving $15 TFO $15M--Iam or Soft Touch Customer receiving Registered TFO $15D--Distributor receiving $15 TFO $15O--OEM receiving $15 TFO $15V--VAR or Dealer receiving $15 TFO $15S--$15 TFO Customer receiving Survey Form *REGI--Company or Person receiving Registered TFO REGM--Iam or Soft Touch Customer receiving Registered TFO REGD--Distributor receiving Registered TFO REGO--OEM receiving Registered TFO REGV--VAR or Dealer receiving Registered TFO REGC--Company, Person, or Customer cancelling Registration *ST--Company or Person receiving Soft Touch products PRODUCT CODES--tells what kind of product received by the customer *SOFTWARE *HARDWARE--computers, terminals, printers *PERIPHERAL--modems, cables, stands SYSTEMS--software and/or hardware and/or peripherals *SUPPLIES--diskettes, covers, paper, labels *CONSULTING *PROGRAMING *INSTALLING *TRAINING *SERVICING SERVICES--consulting, programming, installation, training and/or supplies MULTI--systems and/or services and/or supplies Page 229 Appendix F Page 2 of 5 Sample Coding Guidelines -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- *TFO _.__(version number) *__________(Touch 'N' Sell module) M+TFO _.__(version number) M+________(Touch 'N' Sell module) STATUS CODES--tells what state the customer is in SAMP--free sample sent PCSH--paid by cash PCHK--paid by check PCHG--paid by Visa or MasterCard PMO--paid by money order PCOD--paid by COD PDUE--payment is due DEAD--customer no longer needing goods or services PROSPECT CODE = 1-- STATUS CODES-- 10=Iam prospects PROS--prospect 11= INFO--information sent 12= DEMO--demo given 13= PROP--proposal sent 14= SUSP--activity suspended 15= FUP--followup needed 16= DEAD--no longer interested 17= 18= 19=Iam manipulation PROSPECT CODE = 2-- STATUS CODES-- 20=TFO prospects PROS--prospect 21=TFO VAR prospects INFO--information sent 22=TFO OEM prospects DEMO--demo given 23=TFO Distributor prospects PROP--proposal sent 24= SUSP--activity suspended 25= FUP--followup needed 26= DEAD--no longer interested 27= 28= 29=TFO manipulation Page 230 Appendix F Page 3 of 5 Sample Coding Guidelines -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- PROSPECT CODE = 3-- STATUS CODES-- 30=Soft Touch prospects PROS--prospects 31= INFO--information sent 32= DEMO--demo given 33= PROP--proposal sent 34= SUSP--activity suspended 35= FUP--followup needed 36= DEAD--no longer interested 37= 38= 39=Soft Touch manipulation PROSPECT CODE = 4-- 40= 41= 42= 43= 44= 45= 46= 47= 48= 49= PROSPECT CODE = 5-- 50= 51= 52= 53= 54= 55= 56= 57= 58= 59= Page 231 Appendix F Page 4 of 5 Sample Coding Guidelines -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- PROSPECT CODE = 6-- 60=Vendors STATUS CODES-- 61=Iam vendors 62=TFO vendors SOFT--software 63=Soft Touch vendors HARD--hardware 64= PERI--perepherals 65= SYST--systems 66= SUPP--supplies 67= SERV--service 68= MULT--multi 69=Vendor manipulation PROSPECT CODE = 7-- 70=Publicity STATUS CODES-- 71=Iam publicity 72=TFO publicity REL--news release sent 73=Soft Touch publicity REV--review sent 74= BBS--sent to BBS 75= LIB--sent to library 76= 77= 78= 79= PROSPECT CODE = 8-- 80=Family STATUS CODES-- 81=Friends 82=Bradford friends LET--letters sent 83=Howard--Full Gospel XMAS--Christmas letters sent 84=Howard-- LIST--addresses on file 85=Howard--miscellaneos RES--resume sent 86=Howard-- APPT--appointment held 87=Virginia--Bible study 88=Virginia--miscellaneous 89=Personal manipulation Page 232 Appendix F Page 5 of 5 Sample Coding Guidelines -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- PROSPECT CODE = 9-- 90=General manipulation 91=Iam manipulation 92=TFO manipulation 93=Soft Touch manipulation 94= 95= 96=Vendor manipulation 97=Publicity manipulation 98=Personal manipulation 99=Walknet manipulation SALESMAN CODES-- First Digit-- 1--Howard 2--Virginia Second Digit-- A--Company or Person obtained from an AD B--Company or Person obtained from a BBS C--Company or Person obtained from a COLD CALL I--Company or Person obtained from an INQUIRY L--Company or Person obtained from a LISTING M--Company or Person obtained from the MAIL P--Company or Person obtained from PERSONAL CONTACT R--Company or Person obtained from a REFERREL T--Company or Person obtained from a TELEPHONE CALL Y--Company or Person obtained from the TELEPHONE BOOK SUMMARY: If you are considering a code to report prospects' origination, another method should be used when considering the need to tract sales performance. The second digit change will not work properly as shown above when entering Sales Orders. As you can see one salesman would have many different codes, and you would only want one per salesman in order to report total production. Again the above is only intended as a guideline. You will have to invent your own depending on what you want to report. Product codes hold 10 characters, Type and Status codes hold 4 characters each. -------------T H E E N D---------------