The Business Master (3rd Edition)

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This is the PDS*BASE Data Base System Utility Program. It will allow you to create BASIC programs to print mailing labels, to export and import PDS*BASE data to and from standard ASCII files. This program is is Shareware. Please register for continued use. Copyright 1987 By PRO DEV Software 545 Grover Road Muskegon, MI 49442 The next screen is the Help Menu. Main Help Menu A = Set Your Hardware Defaults B = Define/ReDefine Label Program C = Generate Label Printing Program D = Define Mail Merge/Export/Import E = Generate Mail-Merge Program F = Generate Data Base Blanking Prog G = Generate File Export Program H = Generate File Import Program I = Modify Or Resize Data Base Files J = Disk Directory & Free Space K = Delete/Rename Disk File L = Print Utility Instruction Manual M = Print Any ASCII Disk File Labels Sub-Menu You probably did not have to Setup the hardware defaults with the Setup Sub- Menu, as you should put the program in the same hard disk sub-directory or you should have copied the PDSBSE.CFG file to the floppy disk containing this program. Thus, you should be ready to define and create the BASIC language programs covered by this Sub-Menu. The Define/Modify Label Program Sub- Menu will allow you to define a Label Definition File (with an .LDF file name extender) that will contain the Data Base file and field numbers for the fields that are to be printed on your labels. Highlight the Define/Modify Sub-Menu selection with the cursor arrows and press Enter. As the PDSUTIL.EXE program needs to know the data base definition, it is necessary to type the data base .DEF definition file name. As the .DEF file name(s) are shown, you can highlight the desired .DEF file name and press Enter. You need to type the name of the new Label Definition File and press Enter. If you wish to modify an existing LDF file, the existing file names are shown so that you can highlight the desired file with the cursor keys and press Enter. At this point, you will see the screen where you enter the data file number and field numbers for each label row to be printed on the labels. When you are finished entering the file and field numbers, press the F2 key. You can have several (up to 40) fields on EACH label row. As you enter the data file and field numbers for each label row field, you can press the PgUp and PgDn keys to review or change label row file and field numbers. For each label row field, you can type optional header and trailer characters that are to be printed ahead of or behind each label row field. This is how you tell the label printing program that you wish blank spaces or other characters between label row fields. For example, you should enter a comma and a space after the label row field for the City. Be sure that the optional Header and Trailer characters are enclosed within quote marks. To enter data for the next label row, press the down arrow cursor key. You can enter data for up to 8 label rows. You can use the up and down arrows to move between rows and the PgUp and PgDn keys to move between fields in a row. Press the F2 key when you are finished defining or re-defining a Label Definition File (LDF). At this time you can specify the sort formula for the program that will be generated from this definition. If you are going to modify the sort formula, you should understand both the BASIC language and have read-up on this feature in Section 4.2 of the manual that you printed from the PDS*BASE Data Base PDSBASE.DOC file. Press Enter when you are finished with the sort formula. If you were modifying a previous LDF, you can re-name it by typing a new LDF file name or you can overwrite the old version. Generate The Label Printing Program Highlight the Generate Label Program Sub-Menu selection with the cursor arrows and press Enter. As the PDSUTIL.EXE program needs to know the data base definition, it is necessary to type the data base .DEF definition file name. As the .DEF file name(s) are shown, you can highlight the desired .DEF file name and press Enter. You need to type the name of the old Label Definition File and press Enter so that the PDSUTIL.EXE program will know which definition to use. The existing LDF file names are shown so that you can highlight the desired file with the cursor keys and press Enter. The PDSUTIL.EXE program will soon write a BASIC language program for you. It will be tailored to the LDF file that you have defined. Type the name of the program to be generated. Use up to 8 letters and/or numbers to make up your program name. Consult your DOS manual for legal file name characters. If you use bad characters, this program will CRASH! If you wish to reuse one of the BASIC program names that may be shown presently on the screen, use the cursor keys to highlight the existing file name and press Enter. If you do reuse a name already on the disk, you will be asked if you wish to over write the existing file by that name. There are many different label stocks. Some are one label across and others are 2 or 3 labels across the printed page. Further, the height and width of the labels can vary. The PDSUTIL.EXE program has loaded a special file named LABLSIZE.TYP that contains information about a variety of stocks. If you know the stock number you wish to have your generated program use as the default, type in the number and press Enter. If you wish to see the available choices, press the Space Bar to show each choice. Press Enter when the desired choice is displayed. The generated program will load the LABLSIZE.TYP file so that a last minute decision can be made when running the generated program. You are just picking the default label stock number at this time. At this time, you will be asked if the file names used by the generated BASIC program should include drive letters. This is a rather important question if there is room for all of the files on 1 floppy disk or you are using a hard disk. You may wish to run the programs on various drives where you set the DOS default drive prior to running the programs. If this is the case, you do not want the programs to look for the data base files in a fixed drive letter. If this is the case, Answer N. However, if your DOS default drive is A: or C:, etc., but the data files will always be in drive B:, then you will answer Y. This may be required if you are on a Local Area Network and your programs are running from the DOS default of K: and you have linked drive letter F: to the location on the LAN that contains your data files. These drive letters are just for example. End Of Generated Program You are about to cause the PDSUTIL.EXE program to write a BASIC language prog- ram for you. When you RUN this program and then the program ends, where do you want to end up? M = RUN the menu program MENU.BAS that will allow you to run other BASIC programs or return to the DOS prompt. B = Return to the BASIC Ok prompt. Then you will have to type RUN"progname to run another program or type SYSTEM to return to the DOS prompt. D = Return to the DOS prompt. Define/Modify Mail Merge/Import/Export Definition The Define/Modify Mail Merge Program Sub-Menu will allow you to define a Mail Merge/Export/Import program Definition File (with an .MDF file name extender) that will contain the Data Base file and field numbers for the fields that are to be printed to a disk file to be used for a Mail Merge file with your word processor or for an input file to another data base system or spreadsheet program. The same .MDF file is used to generate a program to Import data from a comma delimited ASCII file to a PDS*BASE Data Base file. The comma delimited file can be one produced by another data base system or spreadsheet program. Highlight the Define/Modify Mail Merge Sub-Menu selection with the cursor arrows and press Enter. As the PDSUTIL.EXE program needs to know the data base definition, it is necessary to type the data base .DEF definition file name. As the .DEF file name(s) are shown, you can highlight the desired .DEF file name and press Enter. You need to type the name of the new Mail Merge Definition File and press Enter. So that you can modify an existing .MDF file, the existing file names are shown so that you can highlight the desired file with the cursor keys and press Enter. At this point, you will see the screen where you enter the data file number and field number for each field that you wish to export or "print" to a disk file. Use the PgDn and PgUp keys to move to defined fields so that you can view and/or make changes. Press the F2 key when you are finished defining or re-defining a Mail Merge Definition File (MDF). At this time you can specify the sort formula for the program that will be generated from this definition. If you are going to modify the sort formula, you should understand both the BASIC language and have read-up on this feature in Section 4.2 of the manual that you printed from the PDS*BASE Data Base PDSBASE.DOC file. Press Enter when you are finished with the sort formula. If you were modifying a previous MDF, you can re-name it by typing a new MDF file name or you can overwrite the old version. Generate The Mail Merge Program Highlight the Generate Mail Merge Pro- gram Sub-Menu selection with the cursor arrows and press Enter. As the PDSUTIL.EXE program needs to know the data base definition, it is necessary to type the data base .DEF definition file name. As the .DEF file name(s) are shown, you can highlight the desired .DEF file name and press Enter. You need to type the name of the old Mail Merge Definition File and press Enter so that the PDSUTIL.EXE program will know which definition to use. The existing MDF file names are shown so that you can highlight the desired file with the cursor keys and press Enter. The PDSUTIL.EXE program will soon write a BASIC language program for you. It will be tailored to the MDF file that you have defined. Type the name of the program to be generated. Use up to 8 letters and/or numbers to make up your program name. Consult your DOS manual for legal file name characters. If you use bad characters, this program will CRASH! If you wish to reuse one of the BASIC program names that may be shown presently on the screen, use the cursor keys to highlight the existing file name and press Enter. If you do reuse a name already on the disk, you will be asked if you wish to over write the existing file by that name. At this time, you will be asked if the file names used by the generated BASIC program should include drive letters. If your files are on a hard disk you should probably answer N. If you have the data files on a drive other than DOS default drive, answer Y. You are about to cause the PDSUTIL.EXE program to write a BASIC language program for you. When you RUN this program and then the program ends, where do you want to end up? M=Return to the MENU.BAS program, B=leave you at the BASIC Ok prompt and D=Return to the DOS prompt. Generate DB Blanking Program Although, the PDSBASE.EXE program will create the blank data base files, you may be writing programs for someone else that does not have the PDS*BASE program disks. Thus, you wish to have a BASIC program that can create blank PDS*BASE Data Base files at any time. Highlight the Generate DB Banking Pro- gram Sub-Menu selection with the cursor arrows and press Enter. As the PDSUTIL.EXE program needs to know the data base definition, it is necessary to type the data base .DEF definition file name. As the .DEF file name(s) are shown, you can highlight the desired .DEF file name and press Enter. The PDSUTIL.EXE program will soon write a BASIC language program for you. It will be tailored to the DEF File for your Data Base. Type the name of the program to be generated. Use up to 8 letters and/or numbers to make up your program name. Consult your DOS manual for legal file name characters. If you use bad characters, this program will CRASH! If you wish to reuse one of the BASIC program names that may be shown presently on the screen, use the cursor keys to highlight the existing file name and press Enter. If you do reuse a name already on the disk, you will be asked if you wish to over write the existing file by that name. As blanking out data base files will destroy any data in an existing data base file, you will want to Password the generated BASIC program. This is the time that you can specify the actual password. Type in your desired password and press Enter. The password will be included in the generated BASIC program as an encrypted string to prevent a casual LISTing of the program from revealing the password. At this time, you will be asked if the file names used by the generated BASIC program should include drive letters. If your files are on a hard disk you should probably answer N. If you have the data files on a drive other than DOS default drive, answer Y. You are about to cause the PDSUTIL.EXE program to write a BASIC language program for you. When you RUN this program and then the program ends, where do you want to end up? M=Return to the MENU.BAS program, B=leave you at the BASIC Ok prompt and D=Return to the DOS prompt. Generate File Export Program Highlight the Generate File Export Pro- gram Sub-Menu selection with the cursor arrows and press Enter. As the PDSUTIL.EXE program needs to know the data base definition, it is necessary to type the data base .DEF definition file name. As the .DEF file name(s) are shown, you can highlight the desired .DEF file name and press Enter. The PDSUTIL.EXE program will soon write a BASIC language program for you. It will be tailored to the MDF file for the Data Base fields that you wish to have written to a disk file. Type the name of the program to be generated. Use up to 8 letters and/or numbers to make up your program name. Consult your DOS manual for legal file name characters. If you use bad characters, this program will CRASH! If you wish to reuse one of the BASIC program names that may be shown presently on the screen, use the cursor keys to highlight the existing file name and press Enter. If you do reuse a name already on the disk, you will be asked if you wish to over write the existing file by that name. At this time, you will be asked if the file names used by the generated BASIC program should include drive letters. If your files are on a hard disk you should probably answer N. If you have the data files on a drive other than DOS default drive, answer Y. You are about to cause the PDSUTIL.EXE program to write a BASIC language program for you. When you RUN this program and then the program ends, where do you want to end up? M=Return to the MENU.BAS program, B=leave you at the BASIC Ok prompt and D=Return to the DOS prompt. Generate File Import Program Highlight the Generate File Import Pro- gram Sub-Menu selection with the cursor arrows and press Enter. As the PDSUTIL.EXE program needs to know the data base definition, it is necessary to type the data base .DEF definition file name. As the .DEF file name(s) are shown, you can highlight the desired .DEF file name and press Enter. You are about to have the PDSUTIL.EXE program write a BASIC language program for you. It will be tailored to the MDF file for the Data Base fields that you wish to import or read from an external comma delimited file and have placed into a PDS*BASE Data Base file. Type the name of the BASIC program to be generated. Use up to 8 letters and/or numbers to make up your program name. Consult your DOS manual for legal file name characters. If you use bad characters, this program will CRASH! If you wish to reuse one of the BASIC program names that may be shown presently on the screen, use the cursor keys to highlight the existing file name and press Enter. If you do reuse a name already on the disk, you will be asked if you wish to over write the existing file by that name. At this time, you will be asked if the file names used by the generated BASIC program should include drive letters. If your files are on a hard disk you should probably answer N. If you have the data files on a drive other than DOS default drive, answer Y. You are about to cause the PDSUTIL.EXE program to write a BASIC language program for you. When you RUN this program and then the program ends, where do you want to end up? M=Return to the MENU.BAS program, B=leave you at the BASIC Ok prompt and D=Return to the DOS prompt. Resize Sub-Menu You desire to add, delete or resize fields, add files or change the maximum number of records in a PDS*BASE Data Base file(s). Prior to selecting this Sub-Menu you must use the PDSBASE.EXE program to create a second (modified) data base DEFinition file. You MUST use a different DEFinition file name, for the revision, so that you will have 2 DEF files - One for the original data base DEFinition, and 1 for the new data base DEFinition. DON'T JUST MODIFY THE DEFINITION - THAT DOES NOT MODIFY THE STRUCTURE OF THE ACTUAL DATA FILES. You are going to generate 2 programs that will create the the NEW blank files and COPY each record from the old file to the new file via a temporary "clone" file. Highlight Load Old .DEF File and press Enter. The existing DEFinition files will be shown. Use the cursor keys to highlight the OLD DEFinition file name and press Enter. Highlight Load New .DEF File and press Enter. The existing DEFinition files will be shown. Use the cursor keys to highlight the NEW DEFinition file name and press Enter. Both files will be loaded into the PDSUTIL.EXE program and all differences will be calculated. When you re-DEFined the data base, you MUST reuse file and field names for the new DEFinition for those files and fields that are still used in the new DEFinition. If you use different file or field names, the resizing programs will assume that they are new files or fields. Names that are NOT in the new DEFinition will be deleted by the resizing programs. You can reuse a field name (spelled the same way) and change the size or type of the field. Care must be taken if you change from a non-DATE field to a DATE field, as you must be sure the dashes appear in the 3rd and 6th positions in the new file. Highlight the Generate Resize Program Sub-Menu and press Enter. Two programs (PDS-OUT.BAS and PDS-IN.BAS) will be generated for you. You can change these default program names if you wish to use different names. You will NOT be asked if you wish to have the generated programs use drive letters on the file names. You will be asked for the file letter when you run the generated resizing programs. You are about to cause the PDSUTIL.EXE program to write two BASIC language programs for you. When you RUN these programs and then the programs end, where do you want to end up? M=Return to the MENU.BAS program, B=leave you at the BASIC Ok prompt and D=Return to the DOS prompt. Set-Up Sub-Menu You have probably already defined your hardware defaults with the PDSBASE.EXE program. This program can reuse the same Set-Up values. If you place this program in the same hard disk sub-directory or copy the existing PDSBASE.CFG file to this disk, you can reuse the defaults. If necessary, define the defaults now. Use the "Save New Set-Up Values" sub- menu option so you won't have to do this again. The "Color Graphics Adapter" sub-menu option allows you to let this program know if you have a Color Graphics Adapter (CGA/EGA) card. If you do, highlight this option, press Return to select the option and press the Y key. You may have a CGA card and a single color monitor - still press the Y key so this program will know how to show the cursor. If you have an EGA card, press the Y key. If you do not have a CGA or EGA card, press the N key. The "Color Monitor" sub-menu option allows you to indicate if you have a color monitor. Highlight this sub-menu option, press Return to select and press the Y key to indicate color. If you have a single color monitor (amber or green, etc.) press the N key. The "Drive A: Num of Bytes" sub-menu option is so this program knows what kind of disk drive you have. Highlight this sub-menu option with the cursor keys and press Return. Type in the number of bytes and press Return. If you don't know how many bytes your disk drive will contain, FORMAT a fresh disk in that drive. Consult your DOS manual for how to format a disk. When the FORMAT program is finished, you will see the number of bytes free. The "Drive B: Num of Bytes" sub-menu option is so this program knows what kind of disk drive you have. Highlight this sub-menu option with the cursor keys and press Return. Type in the number of bytes and press Return. The "Is Hard Disk Present" sub-menu option will show a default of "Y" if you do have a hard disk (assuming that the PDSBASE.CFG file was created on your computer). You may wish to change the default to N if you are preparing data base systems to run on non-hard disk computers for someone else. To change the default, highlight the sub-menu option with the cursor keys and press Return to select this sub- menu option. Then press the Y or N key. The "Printer Action Table" sub-menu option is so you can tell this program what printer you have. If you highlight this sub-menu option with the cursor keys and press Return, you will see the list of available .PAT files. Again, use the cursor keys to select your printer and then press Return. If you don't see your printer name, see Appendix D of the PDS*BASE Instruction Manual for how you can create a new PAT file for your printer. If you are creating BASIC programs for someone else, select the .PAT file for their printer. Be sure to select yours if you are going to print the Utility Manual. The "Work Files Drive & Path" sub-menu is selected by highlighting it with the cursor keys and pressing Return. If you have a 2 floppy disk drive computer, type "B:\" (without the quotes) and press Return. If you have a hard disk, you may desire to have the data base, definition and BASIC program files in a sub-directory different from the DOS default sub-directory where the PDS*BASE system files are located. Enter the full drive and path with a trailing back slash and press Return. The "Save New Set-Up Values" option is so you don't have to provide the options every time you run the PDSBASE program. After entering your defaults, highlight this sub-menu option with the cursor keys and press Return, Then, press the Y key. The new defaults will be saved to a file named PDSBASE.CFG. This file is read by both the PDSBASE.EXE and PDSUTIL.EXE programs when they are run. Tools Sub-Menu This sub-menu gives you several handy options to organize your disks and to print the Utility documentation. If you need to copy or move files while in this program, I recommend that you obtain and register a copy of the Shareware "FileFriend" memory resident utility. Most Shareware distributors and many bulletin boards carry the ColePro FileFriend system. The "Disk Directory" sub-menu will show you the names of the files on any drive on your system. Highlight this sub-menu with the cursor keys and press Return. You will be asked for the letter of the desired drive. The current DOS default drive will be shown. Press Return for the default or press the desired drive letter key. WARNING - This option works best if the DOS COMMAND.COM file is present. If you do not have a hard disk, try to have the COMMAND.COM file on the disk in drive A. Don't panic if you do not have COMMAND.COM on the disk, the file names may scroll off the screen if the quan- tity of files is large. The "Disk Free Space" sub-menu is handy if you are planning to create a new data base or report definition file. You can highlight this selection with the cursor keys and press Return. If the number of bytes is low, you may wish to use another disk before you create a new file. You will be asked for the letter of the desired drive. The current DOS default drive will be shown. Press Return for the default or press the desired drive letter key to see the bytes free. The "Delete File" sub-menu option will be selected when you highlight the sub- menu with the cursor keys and press Return. Type the full file name, with drive letter, colon (and path if the file is in another sub-directory) and press Enter. You will be asked to confirm the deletion. The "Rename File" sub-menu option is selected by highlighting it with the cursor keys and pressing Return. Type the full file name, with drive letter, colon (and path if the file is in another sub-directory) and press Enter. You will then be asked for the new file name for the selected file. The "Print Utility Manual" sub-menu is selected by highlighting it with the cursor keys and pressing Return. This is better than using the DOS command COPY PDSUTIL.DOC PRN as this sub-menu option adds 7 spaces as a left margin. If you have previously specified a default Printer Action Table that has a Near Letter Quality value, you will be asked if you wish to print Near Letter Quality. Answer Y for NLQ. This slows down most printers, but you really should do the best job possible when printing my beautiful manual. (Don't get sick). Press N for draft quality. During the printing, you can press the Esc key to stop printing. The "Print ASCII File" sub-menu (select with cursor keys and press Enter) will allow you to print any ASCII or text type of file. You will be asked for the full path and file name. If you wished to print (for example) a file you have created named TERRFIC.PDS on the B disk drive, type B:TERRFIC.PDS and press Return. Press Esc to stop printing. Quit Sub-Menu Highlight the Quit Menu, press the down arrow cursor key to highlight Yes and press Enter. Be sure that the disk with the desired DEFinition is in the Work Files Drive. The DEFinition file is not in the Work Files Drive (and Path if you are using a hard disk). Check the file name spelling or that you have inserted the correct disk. Any existing Label Definition File names are shown on the screen. You can use the cursor arrow keys to highlight the desired file and press Enter or you can type the name. Any existing Mail Merge Definition File names are shown on the screen. You can use the cursor arrow keys to highlight the desired file and press Enter or you can type the name. The LDF file name was incorrect or the file is not in the Work Files Drive And Path. Check to see if the correct disk is in the drive. The MDF file name was incorrect or the file is not in the Work Files Drive And Path. Check to see if the correct disk is in the drive. You pressed Esc to abort defining or re-defining a Label Definition File. If you wish to continue the definition, press Y. If you press Enter or N, all definitions not already saved to disk will be lost. You pressed Esc to abort defining or re-defining a Mail Merge/Import/Export Definition File. If you wish to continue the definition, press Y. If you press Enter or N, all definitions not already saved to disk will be lost. You have been mofifying an LDF file and have pressed F2 to save. If you wish, you can type in a different name to keep the old version on the disk. If you don't change the ame, the old version will be overwritten. You have been mofifying an MDF file and have pressed F2 to save. If you wish, you can type in a different name to keep the old version on the disk. If you don't change the ame, the old version will be overwritten. You are trying to generate a program and the DBOPSUB.SRC file is missing. This file is required as input by the PDSUTIL.EXE to be able to generate your BASIC language program. COPY this file to the disk in the present DOS default drive. You are trying to generate a program and the MAILABEL.SRC file is missing. This file is required as input by the PDSUTIL.EXE to be able to generate your BASIC language program. COPY this file to the disk in the present DOS default drive. You are trying to generate a program and the MAILMERG.SRC file is missing. This file is required as input by the PDSUTIL.EXE to be able to generate your BASIC language program. COPY this file to the disk in the present DOS default drive. You are trying to generate a program and the DB-BLANK.SRC file is missing. This file is required as input by the PDSUTIL.EXE to be able to generate your BASIC language program. COPY this file to the disk in the present DOS default drive. You are trying to generate a program and the DBEXPORT.SRC file is missing. This file is required as input by the PDSUTIL.EXE to be able to generate your BASIC language program. COPY this file to the disk in the present DOS default drive. You are trying to generate a program and the DBIMPORT.SRC file is missing. This file is required as input by the PDSUTIL.EXE to be able to generate your BASIC language program. COPY this file to the disk in the present DOS default drive. Before you can generate the Data Base Resizing program, you MUST load both the OLD and NEW data base DEFinition files. You are trying to generate a program and either the DBUTIL02.SRC file or DBUTIL03.SRC file is missing. These files are required as input by the PDSUTIL.EXE to be able to generate your BASIC language program. COPY this file to the disk in the DOS default drive. The Printer Action Table file (.PAT) as called for in the Set-Up Sub-Menu is NOT on the DOS default drive disk. COPY the correct .PAT file to the disk in the present DOS default drive. The Printer Action Files on the DOS default drive (and path) are shown on the screen. Use the cursor arrow keys to highlight the desired file name and press Enter. For this Label Field, enter the file number from the Data Base DEFinition listing for the data file field. For this Mail Merge/Export/Import Field enter the file number from the Data Base DEFinition listing for the data file field. No file number was entered for the inserted field. Enter a number or Delete the inserted field. The DEFinition file for this data base does not have that many files. For this Label Field, enter the field number from the Data Base DEFinition listing for the data file field. For this Mail Merge/Export/Import Field enter the field number from the Data Base DEFinition listing for the data file field. The requested file does not have that many fields. This field is in a different file than you have been using so far. What previously defined file will lead to this file. Yor didn't enter a Lead To file number for this field. The Lead To field that you entered wasn't a file and field previously called for in this definition. This field is in a different file than you have been using so far. What previously defined file field will lead to this file. Yor didn't enter a Lead To file number for this field. Start over. You can only have 1 Detail file fields in this definition. You have requested a Detail field that is NOT related to a Master field used so far in this definition. Do you wish to list the First, Last or All Detail records for each Master record. Press Space Bar to toggle choices and press Enter or press F, L or A to select. If you wish characters to be printed ahead of this label field, insert the characters (including spaces) within the quote marks. You must have 2 sets of quote marks. One in front of the Header characters and one behind. If you wish characters to be printed behind this label field, insert the characters (including spaces) within the quote marks. You must have 2 sets of quote marks. One in front of the Trailer characters and one behind. If you are defining a Label Definition File, you can have up to 40 fields per row. If you are defining a Mail Merge/ Export/Import Definition, you are limited to 40 fields total. The total number of left and right parentheses must match. The File Name in the first line of the Data Base Definition file does not match the file name itself. They must be the same. The descriptions for the various types of label stock are contained in a file named LABLSIZE.TYP. This file must be in the DOS default drive to continue. The asterisk was removed from the LABLSIZE.TYP file. It belongs just before the lines of label stock data. You entered a number higher than the quantity of data lines contained in the LABLSIZE.TYP file. You must enter a password to continue. If all else fails - just use the word PASSWORD. Even I can remember that. Somebody or something has been messing with the SRC file that we are trying to use. Check over your original disk to find a version of this SRC file that has "*31" as the last line. If you are "Registered" with PRO DEV Software, I will send you a new disk if you send me the disk that I sent to you using a re- usable disk mailer. If you just got the PDS*BASE system disk from a distributor that includes this corrupted file, they should get you a good disk if they are worth anything. Of course, if you are a "closet" user that hasn't registered with me SEND ME MONEY and I will send you a good disk. I have never issued a corrupted disk to a distributor or to a user group, etc. PLEASE REGISTER !! While defining/re-defining the Label or Mail Merge definition, you modified the sort formula and created a BASIC syntax error. I suggest that you recheck your modification and, if necessary, consult the BASIC Primer manual that is on the PDS*BASE Documentation disk. Type the full file name, with drive letter, colon (and path if the file is in another sub-directory) and press Enter. The requested file was not found. It may have been spelled incorrectly or may be missing. The drive and path may not be correct. One last chance to change your mind before you blow away this file. When entering the new file name for the RENaming process, do not enter the drive letter. If you insist on using this duplicate file name, DELete the file with the same name first. Line up the paper and be sure the printer is turned on. You can enter up to 9 spaces for a left margin. If your file data is too wide, a left margin may cause problems. Pick a Section - Any Section - Or pick 'em all. Be reasonable! If the documentation file is in a different drive, press that drive letter. By saying Yes (Thats like "Say Yes To Michigan") you can print a better looking document. If you have DEFined your data base with a special field that you will use to control whether or not certain labels will be skipped, you can let the Label Definition File (.LDF) know about that at this time. If you are not using this feature, type zero and press Enter at this time. If you are using this feature, enter the file number for that "Skip Print" field. Next you will be asked for the field in that file that is the "Skip Print" field. Now that you have entered the "Skip Print" file number, enter the field number in that file that is the field that you will be using as the "Skip Print" field. If you do not enter a number, you will be asked again for the "Skip Print" file number. This gives you a chance to abort this feature by typing zero when again asked for the "Skip Print" file number. You have told me the file and field numbers for the "Skip Print" field in your label data base. Now, you need to tell me just what character(s) you will type into that label record "Skip Print" field for those label records you do not wish to print. I usually leave that field blank for "live" records and type in a N to not print a particular label record. Later, you could define a similar label printing program that will skip those records where the "Skip Print" label field is blank. That way, you can print labels for just the ones that you normally skip. If you specify a blank, I will warn you that you had better be aware that unless you put something in the "Skip Print" label field, those records will never be printed. Thus, use blank on those special label printing programs where you wish to send letters to normally inactive persons in your label list.