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Shareware Overload Trio 2
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ERD-V20B.DOC
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1994-09-24
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THE ELECTRONIC RESOURCE DIRECTORY
Version 2.0 BETA - Documentation.
Welcome to the Massachusetts Commission for the Blind
electronic resource directory! Here's what it is and how to run
it.
the Electronic Resource Directory was created at the
Massachusetts commission for the Blind to allow all staff with or
without vision to have a common database of resource listings
available to them on our local area network. While not being a
pretty little icon driven database, it gets the job done quickly
and supplies sufficient information to give interested folks what
they need!
Running the program is simple. Just make sure all the files
that came in the .zip file are in a DOS subdirectory of your
choosing. Now you simply go to the directory and type without
quotes, "ERD" and up it comes.
Once you are in the program, there are basically 9 search
options available to you; 1) have the various categories of
information displayed and then search a particular one either in
total or by city or state, 2) search for a particular resource by
name, 3) search all records by state, 4) search all records by
city, 5) search for a state legislator, 6) set colors, 7) create
a text file or print a listing of a whole category, 8) create a
text file or print the whole database, or 9) search for listings
from a particular date forward.
The special add ons to the program that have been created
are as follows:
* You can have a news file and an additional good-bye file
shown by creating two text files. If you write an ascii text
file called "News.txt" and if the program sees it in the same
subdirectory then it will send the file to the screen before
executing the main menu. If the program sees a file called
"Bye.txt" then it will send that before exiting to DOS upon user
selection to quit. These files not only allow you to have your
own little messages passed to the user, but also could serve to
customize the program to your own organization, agency, company,
bbs or whatever. We use the Marshall Dudley (creator of
Doorway.exe) send.exe file for the program. If you run a BBS and
want to use the directory online for your callers, then use
Doorway.exe from Marshall since it is the best way to run DOS
programs from within a BBS environment. You can get a copy of
Doorway from almost any BBS out there usually under the file name
of "DRWYXXX.zip" where the XXX is the version number of the
release.
* You can use our "EE.exe" program to edit the records
which allows you to add, edit, or delete them. In this way You
could create your own resource directory and keep it constantly
updated. You can even use the " - " command in the EE.exe file
to automatically get rid of blank entries and duplicates!
Updates of the databases will be available from time to time
from the Massachusetts Commission for the Blind electronic
bulletin board service at area (617)-451-5327! We are developing
a multi-node board now and will have 4 lines in the not too
distant future.
Finally, there are no guarantees about software performance
or database accuracy other than the stuff should fit on your hard
disk. It's free and you can use it for good purposes.
September 24, 1994 - Charlie Crawford.