Copyright: Copyright 1992 Peter Pauly


CVTT Contents

Contents for CVTT Help

CVTT stands for Convert Telecommunications Files.

It is a utility that will convert phone directory files from various communications programs.

It will also allow you to manipulate the directory entries and sort them in various ways.

How to...

Open Files

Read in Text Files

Save Files

Select Directory Entries

Copy, Cut, Paste and Delete Directory Entries

Sort Directory Entries

Change the View

Modify a Directory Entry

What's New in this Release


Open Files

Select the Open options from the File menu to read in a directory.

The screen below shows a sample open dialog.

You should first select the type of file that you want to read in.

In the lower left hand corner of the dialog, press the button next to

"List files of Type" to get a list of possible directory types that CVTT

supports. You must do this even if the directory you want to read in has

the same file extension as some other format because CVTT needs to

know what type of file it is dealing with.

You can then choose a different DOS directory, or change the drive

from which the files are read. A list of files will be displayed with the same

extension as the one requested. You can then choose the file displayed

in the list by double clicking it.

CVTT will then read in the file and convert it from the format specified.

A list of directory entries will be displayed like the one below:


Read in Text Files

CVTT has a very useful and powerful feature of being able to extract information from

text files. Such files are typically lists of bulletin boards with phone numbers that can be

downloaded for your area. CVTT is capable of extracting the bulletin board name,

phone number and baud rate from a text file.

To read in a text file, choose the Open option from the Files menu just as you would

if you were going to read in any other kind of directory.  Choose Text files from the

"List Files of Type" box in the lower left hand corner of the Open Dialog. Double

Click on the file you want to open. CVTT will then display the following dialog which

you can use to define where the name is in the file, where the phone number is, etc.:

The first thing to be selected is the name. Find a sample name in the box which displays

the file and press the left mouse button at the beginning of the name. Drag the mouse to

the right until it is at the end of the name and release the mouse button. You have just

marked the field to be used for the name.

Click the Phone button at the top of the dialog, and do the same thing to select a sample

phone number as shown in the example below:

If the list contains baud rates, click the Baud Rate button at the top of the dialog and select

a sample baud rate as you did for the name and the phone number.

If you want to change a field which you have already selected, just click its button, and

select a different area of the file.

When you are finished, click the OK button and CVTT will read in the text file and fill in the

name, phone number and baud rate based on the fields you just defined. CVTT will use

defaults for fields that are not definable, such as protocol.

Tricks:

CVTT works best with text files that  do not contain labels and blank lines. For CVTT to work at all, the fields read in must always occur in the same column in the file.

You can still read in a file with labels and blank lines in it, and then do the following:

sort the list by phone number. Using the "Long" view, look at the top and bottom of the

list of entries and delete the entries that look like "garbage".  Then sort the list be name

and do the same thing. This will get rid of nearly all extraneous information.


Save Files

CVTT can save a phone directory in a desired format, even if it was read in from a different format. You can use this ability to convert files from one communications product to another.

To save a phone directory file, selected the Save option from the File menu.

The following dialog is displayed:

Select the format that you want the file to be saved in by choosing one of the options from the "Save File as Type" box. Choose the desired DOS directory and drive, and then

type the name of the file in the box in the upper left hand corner of the dialog. You can

also overwrite an existing file by double clicking it in the list box.


Copy, Cut, Paste and Delete

Copy, Cut, Paste and Delete Directory Entries

With CVTT, you have the ability to transfer directory entries to the clipboard,

or to another CVTT window.  First selected the entries to be manipulated as described in the Select Directory Entries help topic. Then selected the desired option from the Edit menu.

The Copy option copies the selected entries to the clipboard. The selected entries remain intact. The copied entries can then be pasted to another location, or to another CVTT window.

The Cut option copies the selected entries to the clipboard and deletes the entries from the entry list. This option is typically used to move entries to a different location within the list.

The Paste option copies entries from the clipboard into the list. If an entry in the list is selected, the copied entries will be placed after the selected entry, otherwise, they will be placed at the end of the list. You can open one directory and copy some entries out to the clipboard, and then open another directory and paste those entries into the other directory.

In this way, you can custom tailor your list of entries.

The Delete option will delete all of the entries that are selected. If you make a mistake, you can re-open the file and CVTT will read in all of the entries again.


Select Directory Entries

You can select individual directory entries, or whole ranges of entries. You can also selected all of the entries by using the Select All option in the Edit menu. Once you have selected the entries, they can be manipulated with the options in the Edit menu.

There are several ways to select entries:

1. Click on the first entry and drag the mouse down or to the right while holding the

     mouse button.

2. Click the first entry, then hold the shift key down and click the last entry. This

     selects the whole range of entries.

3. Hold the ctrl key down and click an entry. This adds the entry to the list of

     entries that have already been selected.

4. Use the Select All option from the Edit menu to select all the entries in the list.

The screen below shows a sample selection:


Sort Directory Entries

The ability to sort directory entries is another powerful feature of CVTT.

The entries may be sorted by name, phone number, last called date, total calls, baud rate or protocol. For example, to sort the list by phone number, chose the by Phone Number option on the Sort menu. In order to see the results of the sort, you may want to switch to the "Long" view which shows more information than the short view.

Some notes about sorting:

1. Names are sorted without regard to capital letters.

2. Long distance phone numbers are sorted after local numbers.  Sorting numbers

     also makes it easy to get rid of certain prefixes which may be toll calls from your

     location.

3. Last call date sorts showing the entries most recently called at the top of the list.

4. Sorting by total calls places the entries with the most calls at the top of the list.

5. Sorting by baud rate places the entries with the highest baud rate at the top.

6. Sorting by protocol places the most "common" protocols at the top of the list,

     and does not sort alphabetically.


Change the View

CVTT lets you view the directory list in two different ways calls "views".

The short view only shows the entry name and baud rate (in an icon).  The list is shown in a multi-column format. This is useful for working with several entries at a time. A sample is shown below:

The long view show several more fields, with each entry on a line by itself.  This view is useful for comparing entries, or seeing the result of a sort. You can use the scroll bar at the bottom of the window to scroll to the right to see more information. A sample of the long view is shown below:


Modify a Directory Entry

CVTT lets you modify information for a directory entry by double clicking the entry. CVTT displays a dialog with the current information that looks like this:

You can modify any information shown by typing over the existing information, or choosing

an option from one of the pull down lists.  Pressing the OK button tells CVTT to make the changes you requested. If you press Cancel, your changes are ignored.


What's New in this Release

Version 1.00

- Easy to use graphical interface.

- Read and write Procomm, Procomm Plus, and Telix phone directory files.

- Convert between the supported directory formats.

- Extract information from downloaded lists of BBS's.

- Sort directories in several different ways.

- Modify individual directory entries.

This program and associated files are not public domain software, nor are they free. commercial or governmental agencies may not use this program or associated files in any way without entering into licensing agreements  with the author. This program or its associated files may not be resold, nor may a fee be charged for downloading them. This program and the associated files remain the property of the author and must be surrendered or destroyed upon request.  This program is copyright 1992 by Peter Pauly. The program may not be decompiled or reverse engineered.  All names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies. All rights Reserved.

If you would like your company's communications product to be supported by CVTT, send a normal or crippled version of your software, plus a file layout definition to the address below.

You can send your comments, bug reports, suggestions, etc. to the address below.

If you like this program and use it, please send a donation to help cover the cost of

development software, books, etc.

Peter Pauly

1568 Vista Club Circle No. 206

Santa Clara, CA 95054

USA

About the Author:

Peter Pauly is currently working as an MVS Systems Programmer on

IBM mainframe computers. His last assignment was in Germany where he

worked as Data Center Manager for over five years.