***************************************************************************** * * * Addresser Version 2.0 * * Copyright (C) 1992 Jeff Kelly * * * ***************************************************************************** Special thanks go out to: - All Addresser 2.0 beta testers. Thanks for being nit pickers. - All registered Addresser 1.0 users, if it weren't for your support and ideas, 2.0 would not have been a possibility. - Geoff Summerhayes, Bill Gray, Randy Rossi, Curtis Kelly (no relation), and the rest of the Algoma Amiga User's Group (my old Amiga club). - Leo Schwab for his "Iconify" functions. - Derek Zahn for his pop up menu functions. - My parents who watched me bang away at my keyboard, not knowing what the heck I was doing. And last, but not least - Janna Veihl, my editor and someone really special to me. Greetings go out to: - All the Computer and Mathematical Sciences majors at Lake Superior State University (Way to go Lakers!!!, 1988 & 1992 NCAA National hockey champions). - Don Marks, and all the Waterloo University mathies. - Everyone who works for Great Lakes Business Forms (my new employers). and - All the members of the Western Michigan Amiga Users Association. (my new Amiga club). Legal Notices: Addresser Version 2.0 is copyright (c) 1992 Jeff Kelly. All Rights Reserved I hereby grant permission for anyone to freely distribute this program as long as this documentation file is distributed with it. In no way should the documentation or the program be modified, or sold for profit. I cannot be held responsible for damage that occurs as a result of the use/misuse of this program as I have made every effort to ensure Addresser operates properly. If you have any problems, suggestions, or would like to send a shareware donation (suggestion: $15), my address is: Jeff Kelly 4455-1 Heritage Ct. S.W. Grandville MI 49418-2634 Phone (616)249-9552 Included with this release of Addresser is a file titled Print.Me. If you wish, you may print the file and fill out the form. The Print.Me form is a user profile which will help me out in diagnosing any problems you may have with Addresser 2.0. Operating Instructions: In the development, and further upgrading of Addresser, Ease of use has been the top priority. Almost all of Addresser's functions have multiple ways of accessing them. Addresser 2.0 now accepts the return key as a default button selection. Any button that is framed will be activated when you press the return key. The Esc key will activate the Cancel button for all requestors. System Requirements: - Amiga computer running AmigaDOS version 1.3 or greater. - A copy of the ARP.Library version 1.30 or greater in your system's LIBS: drawer. The ARP.Library is freely distributable and can be obtained from various sources. To take advantage of some of Addresser 2.0's features: - A Hayes compatible modem. - An AmigaDos preferences supported printer. - Any of the word processors Addresser supports: WordPerfect, ProWrite, TransScript, TransWrite, BeckerText, Professional Page 3.0, or Excellence! Before starting up: If Addresser V1.0 has been used previously, please read this section, otherwise, skip to the Starting Up section. Because of the major changes that have been made in revising Addresser from V1.0 to 2.0, the data file will no longer work. If an attempt to start Addresser 2.0 in a drawer with an older version of the Addresser.Names file is made, a requester will be displayed alerting you of the version differences. The AdVert program is included to convert between V1.0 and V2.0 files. To convert the names list, drag the AdVert and Addresser 2.0 icons into the same drawer as the old version of Addresser, and select replace if a system requester pops up. Now, double click on the AdVert icon. A window will pop up displaying the conversion status. AdVert will copy your original Addresser.Names to a file entitled Addresser.Bak (this is in case an error occurs while AdVert is converting Addresser.Names). After the conversion process is complete, the Addresser setup may be configured before running Addresser 2.0. For further information, please refer to the AdVert.DOC file for more a more detailed discussion on using AdVert. Starting Up: Before starting Addresser, make sure the ARP.library is installed in the LIBS: directory. If Addresser does not detect the ARP.library, you will be alerted of this. Addresser requires the ARP.library for it's file requestor. If AmigaDos V2.0 (or greater) is currently running the ASL requestor may be substituted. There are many good freely distributable utilities (such as UnARP) which will replace the ARP requestor with the standard Amiga ASL requestor. Addresser may be invoked either by the CLI or Workbench. Note to CLI users: Addresser places the Addresser.Names file in the current directory. If you run Addresser in a directory that does not contain an Addresser.Names file, Addresser will prompt for file creation. If the updated version of Addresser.Names is present or the user elected to create a new names file, the Addresser window will appear. Addresser's functions are accessed through this window. It also displays the current record in the database. Addresser window: Address Fields: These fields are basically self-explanatory. They are as follows: First: the person's first name Last: the person's last name Company: the company person works for Street: the person's street address City: the city person lives in Prov/State: the province or state person lives in (Also includes counties in the U.K.) Country: the country person's address is in PC/Zip: the address's Postal Code or Zip Code Home #: the person's home phone number Bus. #: the person's business phone number Note: the short comment pertaining to person All of the information placed within these fields is placed in the address list in alphabetical order according to the Last name field. If two last name entries are the same, the First name field is then used for ordering within the list. If two entries with the exact same name are placed into the list, the user will be notified that a duplicate name has been entered. The user will then be given the choice to add the duplicate entry in or not. If no text is placed in the First and Last field, it will be placed at the beginning of the list, and will not be accessible through the letter buttons. This is important if you just want to place a company with no particular employee into the database. A work around is to place the name you want the record filed under in the Last field. Marked: The marked button is a flag that you can use to "Filter" [/] out certain records in the address list. It is used for printing and merging. When the marked button is pressed, the mark on the button will toggle on and off. When the check mark shows, the record has been marked. Format: This drop down menu lists all the available address formats. The format name that is shown is the format name that is currently attached to the record. Group Buttons: [1] to [6] To the right of the Marked and Format buttons are the group buttons. A checkmark in any of these buttons mean that the current record is a member of that group. A record can be a member of none, any, or all groups. Buttons: Add: [A] This will probably be one of the first things the user will want to do. When the "Add" button is pressed, all previous data shown will be cleared away and you will be presented with a blank record for adding a new name. Since the "First" name string gadget is already activated the new information can be entered right away. To move on to the next field, press return. The cursor will jump to the next field in the window. When all the information has been entered, either press return when in the "Note" field, or select one of the buttons at the bottom of the window. The new record has now been inserted into the list. Remove: [R] Remove is the exact opposite of "Add." It will remove the record that is currently being shown from the address list. When you select "Remove" a confirmation window will pop up stating: Remove from your list? respond by selecting either Yes or No! Search: [S] When "Search" is selected a window will pop up displaying the field to search on, which search mode, and the search string. The "Search on:" gadget displays the field that will be compared with the search string. To change the search field, simply select the button beside the field name (the one with the arrow pointing to a line). A menu of all the field selections will appear. Simply click on the field to be searched, and the gadget will display the new selection. (Those of you who are unfortunate enough to have to use Microsoft (MeSsy) Windows will recognize this menu set up, I felt it would be more useful than the AmigaDos 2.0 "Cycle" button) The search modes are as follows: Search: Stop and display the first occurrence of the search string in the list. Find & Mark: Run through the entire list, and set the marker on each record that has an occurrence of the search string. Find & Un-Mark: Run through the entire list, and clear the marker on each record that has an occurrence of the search string. The "Search String" is a string gadget in which you enter the string for which to search. The search will begin after either pressing return when the string gadget is selected, or by pressing the "Search" button. The search method for Addresser 2.0 is greatly improved over that of Addresser 1.0. A search can now be conducted anywhere within the selected field for the occurrence of any set of letters. Wildcard pattern matching is now also available. The following patterns are supported. PATTERN MEANING ? Any single character is matched c* Zero or more occurrences of c c+ One or more occurrences of c \? Matches a question mark \* Matches an asterisk (*) \+ Matches a plus (+) The search is not case sensitive. Print: [P] Print will bring up a window with some selections to be made before printing: Full List : Prints a list containing all the fields Phone List : Prints a list containing the person's name, and both the home and business phone number. Phone Book : A variation on the phone list, the listing is formatted similar to what would be seen in a phone book. Mailing Labels: Prints the person's name, street, city province or state, country, and postal or zip code in the proper format for a mailing label. The size of the label can be set in the configure requester. This setting makes use of the address' format. Address Cards : Prints all the fields onto a 3 by 5 inch card. Envelopes : Prints a complete envelope with the return address you set and the current address. This function makes use of address formatting. Envelope size and the return address can be set in the configuration requester. Draft : Turn on the printer's draft mode. NLQ : Turn on the printer's NLQ mode. Pica : Use printer's pica character set. Elite : Use printer's elite character set. Condensed : Turn on the printer's Condensed mode. All : Print all the records in the address list. Current : Print only the currently displayed record. (This selection is disabled for full list and phone list). Marked : Print all the marked records in the address list. Single Sheet : Will pause between printing mailing labels, address cards and envelopes so you can insert a new one. Tractor Feed : No pausing, use with continuous forms. Copies : Set the number of copies of each address to print. Print to File : Clicking on this check box will allow you to specify a file path and name to re-direct the output to. The folder icon beside the text gadget will bring up the ARP file requestor which will allow you to specify the output file path. Configure : Brings up the printer configuration requester. See the information on the Configure menu selection for a complete description of this requester. Dial: [D] Dial is used in conjunction with a modem. If the name that is currently being shown in the addresser window has the following buttons: home phone number, business phone number or both numbers, a window will pop up with the following buttons. Home : Dial the home number Business : Dial the business number The Home and Business numbers are mutually exclusive (you can't dial both Home and Business phone numbers at the same time). The person's phone number which you have selected will be displayed. Dial : Hang up the modem, then dial the selected phone number. Hangup : Hang up the modem (you can also press the space bar). Exit : Hang up the modem then exit the Dialer requester. Note: I have only tested this on my USRobotics Sportster 2400, and may not work for all modems, especially those which are not HAYES compatible, or does not like it when a phone on the same line is off the hook. I also suggest that the baud setting in preferences serial section be the maximum rate your modem can handle. The modem is hung up by first sending a space character to the modem (which will stop dialing on most hayes compatible modems), then it drops the DTR line. If the modem doesn't hang up with this method, I suggest setting the modem to recognize the DTR line (consult your modem's manual for how to set this up). If your modem will not dial, Look at the serial preferences setting (refer to the AmigaDOS manual on how to change your serial preferences settings). Set the BAUD rate to the maximum speed the modem can handle. Merge: [M] Merge is used to create "Mail Merge" files or a straight ASCII text file containing the records in the address list. When Merge is selected, it will bring up a window with the following selections: ASCII Textfile: Dump all the addresser fields into an ASCII text file, each field will be on it's own separate line. This selection can also be used to perform a merge using a word processor other than those which are supported by Addresser. After the file is created it can be edited to suit the formatting your word processor requires. WordPerfect : An Amiga WordPerfect merge file will be created with the fields set up as follows: - First Name - Last Name - Company - Street - City - Prov/State - Country - PC/Zip - Home # - Bus. # - Note Pro-Write : A merge file formatted for Pro-Write will be created, the field names are the same as the field labels on the addresser window. TransScript : Merge file format for TransScript and TransWrite. PPage 3 : PPage 3 merge genie file format. The Addresser field names are the names used in the merge file. BeckerText : BeckerText merge file format. Excellence! : Excellence! merge file format. Merge using: All : All records will be used to create the merge file. Current : Only the current record will be placed in the merge file. Marked : Only the records with markers set will be used to create the merge file. Destination File : You can either type the full path and file name of the file you want to create, or click on the disk gadget to bring up the standard ARP file requester and select the file name and path from there. Quick: [U] The quick function is new to Addresser 2.0. Selecting Quick will pop up a requester with a listing of all the names in the Addresser database, last name first. A name with a checkmark beside it has been marked. Double clicking on a name will mark or un-mark that name. The name at the bottom of the list is the current name. Selecting a name and pressing OK will display the full record for that name. To make things a little easier, the up and down arrow keys may also be used (if you are using AmigaDOS 2.0) to select the name, or even type in the first few characters of the last name. Pressing the backspace key will set the current record to the first record in the list. < and >: The < and > buttons are used to move through the address [,] and [.] list. The > button moves forwards alphabetically through the list, while the < button moves backwards alphabetically through the list. A-Z and &: Clicking on one of these buttons will bring up the next record in which the last name starts with that letter. The "&" button is used for last names that don't start with alphabetic characters, or simply type the letter on the keyboard. Iconify : Just below the window's "to front" gadget is the Iconify [I] button. When clicked on, the Addresser window will be shrunk into an icon. When Addresser is iconified, it will be using up the least amount of processor time, and also freeing up some workbench space. To return the Addresser window, double-click on the icon. (AmigaDOS 2.0 supplies a gadget at the top of the window, but to keep compatibility with AmigaDOS 1.3 and 2.0, I decided to keep it there.) Thanks to Leo Schwab for providing his iconify routine to the Amiga programming community. All but the A-Z and & buttons have menu and keyboard shortcut equivalents in the menu bar. Menus: Addresser: About Addresser: Brings up a requester giving the version number [?] and other pertinent information about Addresser. Addresser Info.: Brings up a requester detailing Addresser's current [;] directory, number of names currently in database, amount of memory/disk space used, how many more names can be added to the Addresser database on the current disk, and how many names are currently marked. Configure: The configure menu selection has become a sub menu containing the following selections: General [Z] - This requester allows configuration of the modem initialization and dial string for the Dial option. It will also let Addresser start up in an "Iconified" state. Along the top right hand corner of the general configuration requester are a set of buttons that will allow to configuration of Printer, Groups, Clips, and Formats settings. These buttons bring up the same requesters selecting the same names from the configuration sub-menu. Printer - The printer settings requester is pretty much self-explanatory. The Labels: across drop down menu will set the number of labels horizontally on a page. The width, height and spacing values may require some experimentation to get the best results for your printer, labels, and envelopes. The Return Address button will bring up a quick list requester. From here you can select the return address that will be printed on the top right hand corner on envelopes. Groups - The groups settings requester will allow definition of custom labels for the six group buttons on the addresser main window. A maximum of 10 characters are allowed for a group name. Clips - The clips settings requester controls what is copied to the clipboard when you copy is selected in the name menu (covered later in this file). Formatted output will use the record's current format to output the address to the clipboard. Unformatted output will send out all your selected fields to the clipboard. With each record occupying a single text line. Formats - This is probably one of the most powerful of Addresser's new features. Since each country has it's own special and slightly different address formats. Addresser will now allow you to define up to 10 formats. These will be used in printing out addresses to envelopes and mailing labels. To set up a format, first select a format from the drop down menu just above the OK button. After a format has been selected, type the names of the fields you want to be placed on each line. If you don't want to type the whole name, the first three characters of each field name are recognized. Commas, periods, spaces, attn:, c/o and re: within a format are also acceptable. Here are the recognized field names: First; First name Last; Last name Company; Company name Street; Street address City; City name Prov or State; Province/State field Country; Country field Post or Zip; Postal/Zip code field Home; Home phone number Business; Business number Note; Note field attn:, c/o and re: - special text The format may then be given a unique name. I would suggest that you name them for the country in which they are used (i.e. Canada for Canadian address formats, etc.). Here's an example format: Line 1 First Last Line 2 Company Line 3 Street Line 4 City Prov Line 5 Post I use this format for corresponding with people within Canadian companies. Beside each text field is a set of three buttons (B, I, and U). These buttons, when selected will apply Boldface, Italic, or Underline attributes to its corresponding line. Iconify [I]: Similar to clicking on the Iconify button, see above for more details. Write Changes [W]: Save all changes to the Addresser database without quitting. Quit [Q]: The same as clicking on the window's close gadget. When exiting out of Addresser, any changes that have been made will be saved into your address list file. Name: All the selections in the name menu are the same as clicking on the same buttons on the addresser window. Next and Prior are the same as clicking on the < and > buttons respectively. I essentially created this menu to provide keyboard shortcuts for almost all the addresser functions. Copy [C]: Copies the current record to the clipboard. Depending on what the clips configuration is, it can either be formatted according to the record's format or unformatted. Paste [P]: This is a little trickier than copying to the clipboard. To paste a new record into Addresser, it must be formatted so that the text to be placed into each field occupies one line in the text editor (before copying it to the clipboard). Each line must be terminated with a carriage return character. The lines will be placed into the fields in the following order: First Last Company Street City Prov/State Country PC/Zip Home # Bus. # Note Markers: Mark All: This selection will set all the markers in the address [+] list. Clear All: This selection will clear all the markers in the address [-] list. Mark Group: This selection will set all the markers in the address [shift-1] list which belong to the selected group. to [shift-6] Group Marked: This selection will make all marked records members of the selected group. Show Only: The Show Only selection toggles, when it is selected, [O] only those files with a set marker will be shown when navigating through the list using the < and > buttons. Bugs: No real major bugs that I know of. There is a minor quirk that may bother some people. That quirk happens when the last name field is edited. If the name is changed, no matter what to, the entry will stay in the same location, thus possibly throwing the alphabetical ordering out. Fortunately, if you exit out of Addresser, and re-run it, the names will be re-ordered alphabetically. Another small bug for AmigaDOS 1.3 users has popped up. Somehow, the cursor keys are not recognized by Addresser under AmigaDOS 1.3. All I can suggest if you really want to use the cursor keys to navigate through the Addresser names list is that you get AmigaDOS 2.0. If you feel there are things I can do to improve Addresser, please let me know, my addresses are up at the beginning of this file. If your favorite word processor that does mail merging is not supported, send me an example merge file so I can get the formatting properly, and I'll try to have it implemented for the next version.