CRDFIL.TIP ---------- Copyright 1987 Tony B. Anderson All Rights Reserved The following are a series of tips that have been gleaned from problem-solving discussions with users of the CRDFIL.BAS program. Some of them may help you customize the program for your particular application, or give you ideas of ways to improve the program, or your use of it. Tip 1: Problem: OS error during run of the program. Add CLEAR1000 in line 1, between MAXFILES=1 and M=0 Tip 2: You can use the original program with files on disk, providing your DOS supports access of disk files from BASIC, and in particular the append function to existing disk files. At the "Name of file to use" or the "Filename to create" prompts, simply preface the filename with the device or disk access indicator; most respond to "0:filename.DO", but some require only the colon, in the form: ":filename.DO". Some also do not require the ".DO" extension. The Chipmunk's CDOS supports this command, and the Tandy Disk/Video Interface does, too. Thus far, we have determined that the following alternate DOS's for the TDD also support the necessary commands for the program to work with the TDD. Acroatix' programs POWER-DISK and POWER-DOS for the TDD-1 do, as well as Traveling Software's TS-DOD, version 2 for the TDD-1. Also UltraSoft's version 1 of DISK-POWER does; probably DISK-POWER II for the TDD-2 does, too. It is likely that Traveling Software's DOS for the TDD-2, TS-DOS 3.0 also does, but this is not yet confirmed by report of successful use. (12/30/87) Tip 3: To create a blank prompt, rather than a named prompt, in the section of the program where you are creating prompts, simply type a space, followed by pressing the ENTER key. Tip 4: To automatically add a colon after every prompt entered, change line 1102 in the program so that I$+" " becomes I$+": ". After the change, each time you enter a prompt, a colon will be added to it. "Name" becomes "Name:". Tip 5: To eliminate the prompts (field names) on output, so that your card display contains the data, but not the prompts, change line 1360 by deleting A$(A), so the statement becomes PRINT@P(A),B$(A). That eliminates the input prompts from appearing on output. Tip 6: You want to "mark" or "define" your cards in the data file, so that you can edit them in RAM? Simply add one extra prompt to your cards, make it an invisible prompt by typing a space for the prompt, so it doesn't appear on the screen as output, and respond to the prompt by pressing the enter key during input mode. You will thus create a blank line in your data file between the groups that make up each "card", and can more easily find the beginning (or end) of each card. Put the invisible prompt on line 8, column 39, and it will look like a "Press Enter to continue" sort of flashing cursor. This will also give you a chance to review all the data before going to the "Is the data correct" question. Tip 7: Data Dynamics, 2750 Grundy Ave., Signal Hill CA 90806, sells a larger than normal mailing label on continuous forms in the Fall/Winter '87 mail-order catalog. The label is 4 inches by 1 7/16 inches, which is perfect for dumping an entire screen display to a label. It exactly matches a 40 column by 8 line display, with one blank line between labels. Prices: 1000/$8; 5000/$25. If you have an application where your "card" can be used in a label form, for labelling file folders, boxes, or making shipping labels, these would seem to be a good match for the program's capabilities. Call (800) 351-7832 (outside Calif.) or (213) 424-1172 (inside Calif.) to reach Data Dynamics. Undoubtedly such labels are also available elsewhere. Tip 8: To make a shipping label, Use "From:" as your first prompt on line 1, followed by two blank-prompted entries for lines 2 and 3; then "To:" as your fourth prompt on line 5, followed by two more blank-prompted entries. Fill in your name and address as the top 3 lines, and your shippee's address on the last three lines. When dumped to a label, the resulting label will look like: ------------------------------------- | From: Your Name Here | | Your Address | | City and State, Zip | | | | To: Shipee's Name | | Address | | City, State and Zip | ------------------------------------- Note that you need to position your blank prompts properly to indent the output data in the above form. Tip 9: Search mode, to look for specific cards, or cards with a matching entry is case-sensitive. To cure that, add the following lines to the program. They force your search word, and all the entries on your card to upper-case during the search. (You can cut them out of this file, and paste them into your copy of the program, if you downloaded the TIP file.) 503 FORB=1TOLEN(S$):IFASC(MID$(S$,B,1)>64THENMID$(S$,B,1)=CHR$(ASC(MID$(S$,B,1))AND223):NEXTELSENEXT 508 GOSUB1350:FORA=1TON:FORB=1TOLEN(B$(A)):IFASC(MID$(B$(A),B,1))>64THEN MID$(B$(A),B,1)=CHR$(ASC(MID$(B$(A),B,1))AND223):NEXTB:NEXTAELSENEXTB:NEXTA 509 FORA=1TON:IFINSTR(B$(A),S$)THENGOSUB1360ELSENEXT:GOTO506 Tip 10: An error in line 408 of the original program, versions 1 and 2. GOTO 402 should be GOTO 400. Tip 11: If you move data and files between the 200 and 100/102, the following line will provide an error check indicating that files created for display on the 200 screen will not display properly on the 100/102. 1309 FORA=1TON:IF(P(A)>319)AND(PEEK(1)<>171)THENBEEP:PRINT" Data File Cannot Display on this Model Program Aborted":PRINT:STOPELSENEXT More tips will be added to this file as they become available.