Magnum One/Magnum One (Mid-American Digital) (Disc Manufacturing).iso/d3/lmaster.arc/README

Text File | 1988-01-02 | 21KB | 484 lines

                          LABEL MASTER - USERS MANUAL
                      COPYRIGHT 1986, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
                                RKS ASSOCIATES
                            3820 NORTH DITTMAR ROAD
                              ARLINGTON, VA 22207
                                 703-536-7814


Label Master is designed to work on any IBM PC/XT/AT or compatible
computer, with color or monochrome monitor.  It requires a
minimum of 256K memory.

The following page contains instructions for properly installing
Label Master on your computer.   However, if you are like us, you
probably want to check out your new software right away.  For a
quick test drive of Label Master, just insert Label Master into
drive A, type HELLO, and press the return key.

After you have satisfied your initial curiosity, please read and
follow the complete installation instructions on the following
page.


DUAL DRIVE SYSTEM:

(If you have a hard disk system, skip this section, and read the
section below entitled "HARD DISK SYSTEM").

Step 1 - With your DOS disk in drive A, and a brand new floppy disk in
Drive B, type: FORMAT B:/S.  (Do not type the period).  Be sure to
include the /S since this places the DOS "system" files on the disk.

Step 2 - Replace your DOS disk with the Label Master disk. Copy the
Label Master files to the newly formatted disk by typing COPY *.* B:.
(Do not type the period).  Put the Label Master disk away in a safe
place.  Use the new disk as your working Label Master disk.

Step 3 - Put your DOS disk back into drive A.  Put a brand new floppy
disk into drive B.  This time, type: FORMAT B:.  (Do not type the
period).  We don't need the system files on this disk, so you can
leave off the /S this time.  This newly formatted disk will be used to
hold the Label Master records.  One disk holds 1100 records.

Step 4 - Leave the newly formatted disk in drive B.  Replace your DOS
disk in drive A with your working copy of Label Master. Copy the
RECORDS.DBF, LNAME.NTX, AND ZIP.NTX files from the Label Master disk in
drive A to the records-only disk in drive B:.

You are ready to go.

PLEASE READ THE FOLLOWING CAREFULLY:

Many computer programs, including Label Master, contain a file called
CONFIG.SYS which is used to "configure" the computer's system so that
the program works properly.  The instructions in this file are read
and executed by the computer automatically ONLY when the computer is
first turned on.  To assure that the CONFIG.SYS file is invoked,
please start Label Master as follows:

A. If your computer is off, just put the Label Master working disk in
drive A, the records-only disk in drive B, and turn the computer on.
Label Master will start automatically.

B. IF YOUR COMPUTER IS ALREADY ON, put the Label Master working disk
in drive A, the records-only disk in drive B, and press CTRL-ALT-DEL.
Label Master will start automatically.


HARD DISK SYSTEM:

Create a separate sub-directory for the Label Master program, and copy
the entire Label Master disk to this new sub-directory.

To start Label Master, just go to the Label Master sub-directory and
type HELLO.  Label master will start automatically.

PLEASE READ THE FOLLOWING CAREFULLY:

Many computer programs, including Label Master, contain a file called
CONFIG.SYS which is used to "configure" the computer's system so that
the program works properly.  The instructions in this file are read
and executed by the computer automatically ONLY when the computer is
first turned on.  To assure that the CONFIG.SYS file is invoked,
please follow these instructions:

A. If you start your computer on drive C (drive A empty), and the root
directory of your hard disk does not already contain a CONFIG.SYS
file, copy the CONFIG.SYS file from the Label Master disk to the root
directory of your hard disk.

B. If you start your computer with a floppy "boot" disk in drive A,
and the floppy "boot" disk does not already contain a CONFIG.SYS
file, copy Label Master's CONFIG.SYS file to the floppy "boot" disk.

C. If the root directory of your hard disk, or your floppy "boot"
disk, already contains a CONFIG.SYS file, you need to add the two
commands, FILES=12 and BUFFERS=8 to this existing CONFIG.SYS
file.

If these two commands are already part of the existing CONFIG.SYS file
and the FILES and BUFFERS values are higher than 12 and 8,
respectively, don't change the existing CONFIG.SYS file.  If the
values are lower, however, please change them to FILES=12 and BUFFERS=8.

Please see your DOS manual if you need information on copying files
or modifying the CONFIG.SYS file.



                              MAIN MENU:

A > Add New Record: Press A on the keyboard to add new records.
You will be asked three questions: whether you want to carry
information forward from one record to another, whether you want
to print records while entering them, and whether you want to
have your records automatically date stamped.  Answer Y or N to
each question.

If you have asked to carry information forward from one record to
another, you will be asked to designate the information to carry
forward.

Next, a blank record screen will appear.  Enter the record
information.  Add as many new records as you wish.  The Notes
field can be used to record any information you want.   If you
want to code your records, this is a good place to put the code.

D > Delete/Recall: Getting rid of a record is a two step process.
This may seem a little inconvenient, but it helps assure that
records are not purged from the file accidentally.

The first step is to make the displayed record inactive.  Just
press D on the keyboard.  A message will appear above the record
indicating that the record is now inactive.  Whole groups of
records can be made inactive through the Inactive Records option
on the Utility Menu. Inactive records are also permanently purged
from the file through the Inactive Records option on the Utility
Menu.

An inactive record displayed on the Main Menu can be recalled to
active status by again pressing D on the keyboard.  Selected
groups of inactive records can be quickly recalled through the
Inactive Records option on the Utility Menu.

E > Edit Record:  Press E on the keyboard to edit the record
displayed on the screen,  Make any changes you want.  Press the
PgDn key when finished editing.  The revised record will then be
displayed on the screen.

F > Display Record: Press F on the keyboard to display
a desired record.  A blank search screen will appear.  Enter the
desired search information, press the PgDn key, and the record
will appear.

Please read the I > Index section below, then return here.

EXAMPLE: (Index = Last Name)  To bring John Smith's record to the
screen, just enter Smith in the last name field and press PgDn.
You don't have to enter any other information.

If you have more than one Smith, you can display the right one in
two ways.  First, you can enter just Smith, as above, to bring
the first Smith to the screen.  Then you can press the H > Next
Record key until the Smith you want is shown on the screen.  Or,
second, you can enter Smith in the last name field, and then
enter the first name or some other unique identifying information
in the appropriate field(s).

Searches using a last name are instantaneous.  You can also
bring any record to the screen without using the last name, but
it may take a few more seconds to locate it.

NOTE: Use no more than the first 15 characters of a last name for
a search.

EXAMPLE: (Index = Zip Code)  Perhaps you want to quickly review
the records in a particular zip code.  Just enter the desired zip
code on the search screen, press PgDn, and the first record with
that zip code will be displayed.  Use the H > Next Record key to
display subsequent records.

G > Previous Record: Press G on the keyboard to display the
record immediately before the currently displayed record.

H > Next Record:  Press H on the keyboard to display the record
immediately following the currently displayed record.

I > Index:  Here's what indexing means.  Label Master
automatically maintains two files, called indexes, to keep track
of your records by last name and zip code.  The index files are
named LNAME.NTX and ZIP.NTX.  They are updated automatically as
you add new records or edit existing records.

Indexing enables Label Master to find and display a desired
record on the screen in fewer than two seconds, no matter how
many records are in the file, and to instantly print your records
without any separate sorting.

Press I on the Main Menu to switch between the Last Name and Zip
Code indexes.  The primary use for switching indexes is to
facilitate displaying records. (See F > Display record, above).

N > Notepad:  Press N on the keyboard to display the Notepad.
The Notepad is a very useful feature if more than one person is
using Label Master.  We designed it so you would have a place to
record any coding scheme being used to categorize your records.

Notepad entries do not interact with the records in any way.

P > Print Menu: Press P on the keyboard to display the Print
Menu.  See Print Menu below.

Q > Quit:  Press Q on the keyboard to quit the Label Master
program.

PLEASE NOTE:  Quitting the program by suddenly turning the power
off, by pressing CTRL-ALT-DEL to re-boot the system, etc. may
cause record information to be lost.  Always quit Label Master by
pressing Q at the Main Menu.

Experienced computer users back up their records after every
session to insure that valuable records will not be lost in case
of power failure, disk damage, or other adverse event.  In fact,
we recommend that you keep at least two backup copies of your
Label Master records.  You may never need the backup copies, but
in the event you do, you will be very glad you made the effort.

See your DOS manual for information on copying files.  Hard disk
users should refer to DOS' BACKUP and RESTORE commands.

R > Record Print:  Press R on the keyboard to instantly print the
record displayed on the screen.

+ > Reindex Records:  This option is not displayed on the Main
Menu.  See explanation of indexing under I > Index above.  If you
ever experience a sudden power outage, or otherwise crash the
program by some mistake, you should use this reindex feature to
rebuild the two index files.  Just press the plus sign (+) key on
the keyboard and the two indexes will be automatically rebuilt.

U > Utility Menu:  Press U on the keyboard to display the Utility
Menu.  See Utility Menu below.

                                PRINT MENU


Set labels across to:  Enter the number of labels across you want
to print.

Set label width to:  Enter the length of your label (inches).

Set lines per label to:  Enter the height of your label (print
lines).

Set left margin to: Enter the column to begin printing.  This is
usually 0 for labels.  For Rolodex cards, continuous feed
envelopes, etc., set the left margin at whatever column you want
the information to begin printing.

Print Regular/Condensed Print:  Use regular or condensed print
for dot matrix printers.  Use regular print if you are using a
letter quality printer.

If your dot matrix printer does not produce condensed print when
you select the condensed print option, independently set your
printer to condensed print using your printer manual
instructions, and then select the Regular Print option.

Print by Last Name/Zip Code:  Specify whether you want to print
in last name or zip code order.

Print Whole list/Select list:  Enter W if you want to print a set
of labels for everyone on your list.  Enter S if you want to
print labels for only a select portion of your list.

If you enter S, Label Master will display a sub-menu which allows
you to specify the exact set of labels you want.

There are two Print sub-menus, one for last name order, and one
for zip code order.  The appropriate one will be displayed
depending on the order you have specified.

Print Phone Number:  This feature allows you to print the phone
number on your labels.

Print Notes:  This feature allows you to print Notes field
information at the top or bottom of your labels.

Pause after each page:  This feature allows sheet users to
instruct the computer to pause the printing after a specified
number of labels have been printed.  If you enter Y at this
point, a question will pop onto the screen asking you how many
labels per page you want to print.  The computer will pause every
time the specified number of labels have been printed to allow
you to insert a new page of blank labels in the printer.

SPECIAL FEATURES:

There are four features which deserve special note:

1. Temporary first line:  You can print a temporary first line on
your labels.  This can be very useful if you have schools,
companies, etc., to which you send information at various times,
but to different officials, e.g., to the Director of Athletics
one time, and to the Director of Admissions the next.  You could
also use this to print "Resident" or to insert a greeting such as
"Merry Christmas", etc.

This feature is found on the Last Name/Select List sub-menu and
the Zip Code/Select List sub-menu.

2. AND/OR:  You may use the logical operators AND and OR to print
combinations of codes entered in the Notes field.  + stands for
AND, and * stands for OR.

Example:  You use A, B, and C, to code your records in the Notes
field.  A given record may have one or more of these codes.

To print just the As, or just the Bs, or just the Cs, enter an A
or B or C in the Notes field on the appropriate search screen.

To print those records which are coded with an A and a B, enter
A+B in the Notes field of the search screen.  Do not skip any
spaces before or after the plus sign.

To print those records which are coded with an A or a B or a C,
enter A*B*C in the Notes field of the search screen.  Again, do
not skip any spaces before or after the *.

The + and * may not be used in the same search.

3. Print every nth record:  You can print every nth record, in
zip code order.  For example, you can print every 5th record,
every 33rd record, every 288th record, etc.  This feature is
useful for large list users who may need to print randomized sets
of labels.  This feature is found on the Zip Code/Select List
sub-menu.

4.  Multiple copies of same label:  You can print up to 10,000
labels of any single record in your file.  This feature is called
Multiple labels, same record, and is found on the Last
Name/Select List sub-menu.

This feature is useful for printing such things as return address
labels.

                             UTILITY MENU

1 > Directory Lists:  Use this feature to view, or make HARD COPY
lISTS of, your records in last name, zip code, or organization
order.

2 > Duplicate Records.  This feature allows you to find all last
name duplicates or street address duplicates.

3 > State/Zip Codes:  This feature will display a table of all
valid state codes and their zip code ranges, and check the
accuracy of the state and zip codes of all your records.

4 > Record Count:  This feature allows you to count your records
in various ways.

5> Address Envelopes:  This feature allows you to print a record
directly on a single envelope (or anything else).

6 > Inactive Records:  This feature allows you to view, recall,
purge, etc. any inactive records.

7 > Export Records:  This feature allows you to create an ASCII
text file of Label Master records.  Most good quality records
management and word processing programs can import records in
this format.  This feature therefore allows you to share your
Label master records with other programs without having to rekey
the data.

The ASCII text file is created on your disk and is automatically
labelled WORD.TXT.

PLEASE NOTE:  The ability to take advantage of this feature
depends entirely on YOUR records management or word processing
program, NOT Label Master.  Label Master will create this very
standard ASCII text file for you automatically.  However, that is
as far as we can take it.  Most quality programs are designed to
import ASCII text file data.  Each program is designed
differently, of course, so you need to refer to the reference
manual of the program you are using for file import instructions
specific to that program.

8 > Import Records: This feature allows hard disk users to
combine Label Master maintained on one disk with Label Master
records maintained on another disk, and to import records created
by other programs.

To import records created by word processing programs, or
programs such as Lotus 1-2-3, the file MUST:

- be a standard ASCII text file,

- or be in dBASEIII format.

The main Label Master RECORDS.DBF file is in a dBASEIII format.
Importing records from Lotus 1-2-3, Symphony, Framework, and many
other programs is possible because these programs have the
ability to convert their records into a dBASEIII format.
Specific conversion instructions are contained in the reference
manuals of these programs.

Whether the file is an ASCII text file or is in dBASEIII format,
each record must consist of ten fields, in exactly the same order
as Label Master's fields.  Specifically, last name info first,
then first name info, title info, organization info, street info,
city info, state info, zip code info, phone info, and notes info
last.

dBASEIII format fields must be exactly the same length as the
fields in Label Master records, i.e., all 30 characters long,
except 2 characters for state, 10 for zip code, and 12 for phone.

Field length in ASCII text files can be any size, but info in
fields longer than the size of Label Master's fields will not be
imported.

Fields in ASCII text files must be delimited by commas or
quotation marks, or both.

GENERAL:

You may suspend most operations, e.g., printing, by pressing the
CTRL and S keys at the same time.  Resume operation by pressing
any key.

You may abort most operations by pressing the Q key.  This
terminates the particular operation, not the program.

If you receive an error message at the top of the screen,
followed by the option "Q/A/I?", this means you can Quit the
program, Abort the program, or Ignore the error message and
continue.  An error message such as this is rare.  It usually
occurs when the program has detected a physical problem such as a
damaged disk.

If you should encounter such a message, we suggest you enter
Q, rather than A or I.  Entering Q will close all files in an
orderly manner and return to DOS.  Entering A will abort the
program and return to DOS immediately, without closing files in
an orderly manner, and should therefore be avoided. Entering I
will continue with the program, but with unpredictable results.


CONVERTING RECORDS FROM EARLIER VERSIONS OF LABEL MASTER:

Earlier versions of Label Master stored records in a file called
MAIL.DBF.  Version 3.0 stores its records in a file called
RECORDS.DBF.  These files are not compatible.  Follow these steps
to convert records from an earlier version to the new version 3.0.

Step 1: Start up your earlier version, and go to the Utility
Menu.  Choose the Word Processing option.  When the Word
Processing menu appears, choose the Copy All Records option.
Label Master will automatically transfer your records to a file
called WORD.TXT on your disk.  Quit the Label Master program.

Floppy Disk Users:  Copy the WORD.TXT file to your version 3.0
records disk; then continue with step 2 below.

Hard Disk Users:  You should install your new version 3.0 Label
Master on a separate sub-directory from your earlier version of
Label Master.  When the conversion of records in step 2 is
complete, you can then safely delete your old Label Master
program from your hard disk.

Step 2: Start up your new Label Master, version 3.0, and go to
the Utility Menu.  Select option 8, Import Records.  When the
Import Records Menu appears, choose item 2, Import ASCII Text
File, and follow the instructions to import your old records from
the WORD.TXT file created in step 1 above.

FINAL NOTE:  RKS ASSOCIATES CAN CUSTOMIZE LABEL MASTER TO MEET
REGISTERED OWNERS' SPECIFIC MAILING LIST NEEDS.  CALL US AT 703-536-
7814 TO DISCUSS YOUR REQUIREMENTS.

                             ------END-------