CardFile Documentation Version 1.1 November 21, 1989 Copyright (C) 1988,1989 by Tyson Gill CardFile is a specialized data base which is valuable to anyone who uses a word processor for correspondence or keeps a record of addresses or phone numbers. It helps you organize business cards for the office or addresses for the home. It has a simple but powerful searching capability to allow you to quickly find what you need. It will address individual envelopes, generate phone lists, or even compile address books. If you spend long periods in an application such as LaserC, 1st Word, or Pagestream, the CardFile accessory provides instant access to phone numbers and addresses without having to interrupt your work. It will even dial your phone for you automatically! CardFile can import files from or export files to your spreadsheet or data base. The accessory will insert addresses into your word processor at the click of the mouse. CardFile uses the same data files as your mail merge program and can be used to combine or filter your mail merge files. CardFile features an extremely ergonomic user interface which makes data entry and access as enjoyable as possible. It works on any Atari ST compatible computer in monochrome or medium resolution color mode. The Distribution Diskette The following files are present on the distribution disk: CARDFILE.PRG Application version CARDFILE.ACC Accessory version CARDFILE.TXT This documentation file Distribution CARDFILE is distributed as Shareware. You are therefore encouraged to copy and give it to your associates and friends. If you like CardFile, please send $15 or more to register your copy. After you register, the author will be happy to provide support and update information. Remember, all companies charge for upgrades. Upgrading code takes work. If you upgrade to an enhanced version of CardFile, send at least $10 to register. Please honor the shareware system. An incredibly small number do. Don't keep putting off sending in payment for the shareware programs you are using. Shareware authors work very hard on their projects and the fee they ask is merely a token to let them know their work is appreciated. The only way shareware developers can "justify" program revision and enhancement is if you honor the shareware system. Send CardFile registration fee to... Tyson Gill 12114 Kirton Avenue Cleveland, Ohio 44135 Disclaimer CardFile has been in use since 1988 by quite a few people in a wide variety of environments. The author knows of no problems that could arise from its use. However, the author makes no warranty of any kind in respect to this document and the programs it describes. The user assumes any risk as to the quality and performance of CardFile. In no event will the author, Tyson Gill, be liable for direct, indirect, incidental, or consequential damages resulting from any defect in the performance and use of this program. Running CARDFILE.PRG To run CardFile as an application program, double click on the CARDFILE.PRG icon. Installing CARDFILE.ACC If you wish to keep your CardFile handy as a desk accessory, place CARDFILE.ACC and CARDFILE.DAT in your root directory and reboot the computer. Default Data File When you start CardFile, it will look for a default data file named CARDFILE.DAT in the same folder as the program. This data file will be automatically loaded if found. If no default data file is present, you will be able to load one using the FILE LOAD option. Configuration File Version 1.1 uses a configuration file (CARDFILE.CFG) to store program settings. These include edit mode (Insert/Overwrite), autodialer prefixes, and print settings. This file is loaded automatically if present. To save the configuration, select 'Save CFG' from file 'File' menu. The Card Display One card and the options menu are displayed in the CardFile window. You can move this window or resize it. You can move through the card file by pressing the left and right arrows on the keyboard or by clicking on the right and left or up and down arrows on the window using the mouse. By pressing one or more alpha keys followed by Return, you can skip directly to the card nearest those letters. For instance, if you press GI-Return, CardFile will move to the first card whose last name begins with GI or the next closest card it finds in alphabetical order. In version 1.1, the current search string is displayed on the bottom of the card display. Exit the program by clicking the CLOSER box with the mouse, by pressing CONTROL-Q, or by clicking the QUIT option from the on- screen menu. If you have edited your card file and not yet saved it, you will be offered the option of updating the disk file before exiting. Editing The Edit option allows you to alter an existing card or to use it as a starting point for creating a new card. Select the EDIT option. If you wish to blank out the current card to start clean, select the NEW option. After editing the fields, select REPLACE or ADD to replace the previous card or add a new one. Select the 'Insert' option or press the 'Insert' key to toggle between overwrite and insert editing modes in version 1.1. Notice that while in the edit mode, you cannot exit CardFile or change cards. The right and left arrow keys are redefined to move the cursor within the current text field. The up and down keys are redefined to move between fields. The Return key moves to the next field and Esc clears the current field. The mouse can also be used to move to any field position. Sorting As you enter the cards, CardFile insert them in alphabetical order according to the following fields. Last name, first name, middle initial, company name This means that the data is effectively sorted in this order of precedence. CardFile does not provide utilities for resorting the cards, but its highly flexible filtering capability should meet the large majority of needs. Note that since fields are sorted by company, one can use the keyboard to move directly to a company card if no name fields are present. Filtering One of the most power features of the program is the ability to select ( or filter ) which cards are displayed based upon one or more of the fields. To define the filter fields, select Filter from the on-screen menu. Enter or edit each field that you wish to filter. Edit functions operate as in normal card editing. To make a match, the text entered in the filter field can appear ANYWHERE in the corresponding field of the card. It may be only a portion of the actual field. The filter is NOT case sensitive, so the case of the filter or card field does not matter. To turn on filtering, select either 'Filter ALL' or 'Filter ANY' from the Filter menu. ALL means that to be displayed a card must match all fields from the filter card. ANY means that the card must match any one of the fields on the filter card. After setting the filter fields, select 'Set' to save the current filter set up. If filtering is active, the status line at the top of the display window will indicate so. Addressing Envelopes Cardfile can be used to address envelopes. Simply select the Print option from the on-screen menu. You will be presented with the print menu. Click on the ENVELOPE button and set the spacing and tabbing to locate the address. Load your envelope in the printer and click on the PRINT option to send the current address to the printer. Click the Form Feed button if you wish to print a single address. If you are printing address labels you will not wish to issue a Form Feed until you have completed a column of labels. If your label form has more than one column, you can re-insert the form and re-set the horizontal tab for the next column. The program always prints five lines for each envelope. If any of the fields are empty, the unused lines are padded at the end. Using the HP DeskJet, envelopes can be addressed directly using an offset of 40 spaces over and 14 lines down. Printing a Phone List To print a phone list, select PHONE LIST from the print dialog box. CardFile will print out name, home, and business phones from all currently filtered cards. Set spacing to zero if you do not wish spaces between the lines of the phone list. Two lines are printed for each card. The first contains the name and home phone number. The second contains the company name and work phone number. If the name and home phone fields are empty, the program does not print that line. If the company and work fields are empty, it does not print the second line. This way, it is very easy to obtain a phone listing that is exclusively home or business either by the kind of data entered or by filtering. Printing an Address Book To print out an address book, select ADDRESS BOOK from the print menu. CardFile will print out all information from all currently filtered cards. Set the spacing to one to leave one space between each entry. Mail Merge Since the CardFile data files are in a standard delimited file format, the records can be accessed by most mail merge utilities such as 1st Word Mail Merge. You can use CardFile to combine mail merge data files or to save filtered mail merge sub-files. Send When the accessory is used, the Send option appears on the main menu. This option exits the accessory and sends the current card to the calling application, such as First Word. When you return to the accessory, it will be in the same state you left it. The transmit option is compatible with most programs such as LaserC, Pagestream, Word Writer, Calamus, Word Up, etc. With this capability, you can get into your word processor, select a card from CardFile, transmit the card to your word processor, and address the envelope all in a few easy steps. If later you would like to utilize mail merge, you are all set. If you get a call while you are editing, you can call up the accessory and quickly add a new card to your file without interrupting your session. Phone Autodialer If you have a Hayes compatible modem, you can use CardFile to automatically dial you phone. Choose "Dial menu" from the main menu and choose the autodial prefix you wish to use. Choose the card to dial and then select Home or Work phone to dial. Click the OFF HOOK button to turn off the modem after you pick up the reciever. You can do this before the party answers to answer cleanly, or after you hear them answer on your modem speaker if you want to be sure they are there. Note that the dialer does not alter the RS-232 configuration. Use the Control accessory to set your serial port. The OFF HOOK function sends "ATH" and a carriage return to the serial port. Keyboard Usage Keyboard equivalents are available for some menu options. These are shown on the appropriate menu item. The ^ symbol reminds you that the Control key must be pressed along with the letter shown. The 'Insert' key can be used as a keyboard equivalent for the Overwrite/Insert button on the Edit card and edit Filter menus. Cards can be accessed directly by pressing the first few letters of the card followed by a Return. Cards are alphabetized in the order... Last name, First name, Middle initial, Company The Home key can be pressed to go directly to the first card. Importing and Exporting CardFile should run on your Atari ST for many years to come. If you ever decide to use another machine or program, however, your efforts to computerize your data will be a worthwhile investment. CARDFILE.DAT is compatible with Lotus 1-2-3 'PRN' file format. This means that it will read a spreadsheet PRN file and spreadsheets can read CARDFILE.DAT. You can also edit CARDFILE.DAT with a word processor although the line length (350+ characters) could exceed the limit of your program. The CardFile data files can also be read or generated by almost any data base program quite easily. There is a merge option to allow you to combine one or more files. This is useful if you subdivide your master file into smaller filtered files and recombine them with other data files. If you wish to import or export data, the following are the field assignments and maximum lengths for setting up your spreadsheet. Fields are separated by commas and records terminated with a newline. Field Content Maximum Length 1 First name 15 2 Middle name 1 3 Last name 21 4 Title 40 5 Company name 40 6 Address 40 7 City 18 8 State 12 9 Zip Code 8 10 Home Phone 27 11 Work Phone 27 12 Note one 40 13 Note two 40 14 Group 14 The Group Field The GROUP field can also be used to create classes of entries for quick retrieval. You can assign each card to one or more categories such as RELATIVES, PTA, ST CLUB, FRIENDS, REPAIR or anything else. For instance, the group field can be used to filter between home and work entries. Hints and Suggestions Use CardFile for home and work. You can use it to maintain and update a phone list to keep by the phone, to address envelopes for bill payments, or to print out a whole new address book as needed. You can organize you address book into sections by filtering. One nifty hint is to use the note fields to embed filters for periodic mailings. For instance, you can filter all cards with XMAS in the note line for addressing your Christmas card envelopes. You can search for B-JAN at the end of December to list out and address people who should get birthday cards in January. You can use 'Filter ALL' to look for everyone in your organization who lives in your zip code area. 'Filter ANY' can be used to find everyone with a birthday this month who lives in your area code for a birthday phone call. Also, the editable fields for State, Zip, Phone Number, etc were purposely left unformatted so that international formats would not be a problem. Be aware that all options in the menu are not present at all times. For instance, the 'Purge' option is not presented unless filtering is active. The 'Send' option is only available in the accessory version. Technical Information CardFile requires less than 50 Kb of program memory. It can store up to 2500 cards per file. The program allocates memory in 20 Kb blocks as needed until it runs out of memory. All data is stored in RAM for minimum disk access time. Since the data files are packed in RAM as well as on disk, the program is very efficient on memory. If each field of all 2500 cards was completely filled, the data base would require about 900 Kb of storage. However, since most fields are usually only partially filled at best, memory requirements are typically much smaller. If we assume a CardFile data base of 200 cards and a field use ratio of 50%, the program would require 36 Kb for data and a similar amount for the program. That means that CardFile offers a nice balance of low memory requirements and fast in-memory access. This is especially important for use as an accessory. Menu Summary Main Menu ^E Edit Edit current card or add a new card ^D Delete Delete current card ^F Filter Edit the filter card File menu Load, merge, save, or purge files Print menu Print envelopes, phone lists, or address books Dial menu Send dialing sequence to modem ^S Send Send current card to application (accessory only) ^Q Quit Exit program or close accessory window Don't Look! Shareware distribution information Edit menu ^N New Clear all fields Overwrite Toggle between overwrite and insert edit modes ^A Add Add (create) new card ^R Replace Replace previous card ^C Cancel Abort edit Filter menu ^N New Clear all fields Overwrite Toggle between overwrite and insert edit modes Filter off Save filter card but do not activate Match any Display only cards matching all filter fields Match all Display all cards matching any one filter field ^C Cancel Abort edit File menu ^N New Delete all cards Load Load a new CardFile file Merge Merge current file with another CardFile file Save Save current cards under same file name Save as Save current cards under new file name Purge Delete all cards not displayed (when filter active only) Save CFG Save CARDFILE.CFG with current configuration Main menu Return to main menu Print menu <- TAB -> Click mouse on arrows to set horizontal printer tab <- SPC -> Click mouse on arrows to set vertical printer spacing Envelope Select printout of name and address of current card Phone list Select printout of phone list for all displayed cards Address Select complete printout of all displayed cards Print Print selected output Send FF Transmit an immediate form feed to printer Main menu Return to main menu Dial menu Prefix 1 First dial prefix Prefix 2 Second dial prefix Prefix 3 Third dial prefix New Prefix Edit selected dial prefix Dial Home Autodial current home phone number Dial Work Autodial current work phone number Off Hook Send Off Hook string, "ATH", to modem Main menu Return to main menu