The Jan-Feb 88 issue of SyncWare News has a letter from Paul Holmgren about loading a ProFile file into the MSCRIPT word processor. I don’t get all of his suggestions to work but at least this loading can be done. This looked interesting for an idea I have had for printing (on a large printer) the names and addresses of the CCAT/S members on a single page in 2 column format and with last names in alphabetical order. Also it would be necessary to be able to make corrections, revisions, and additions without destroying this order. ProFile will not easily meet some of these requirements. Using version 3, 4, or 5 can accomplish some of these goals.
Automatic printing of a block of text is permitted by MSCRIPT plus it has text formatting, search, and text block moving. One disadvantage is that the cursor can be moved only to the top and end of the text by single key press. Other cursor movement is by use of the arrow keys which isn’t so bad for short text but several hundred lines! The reason for this comment is that a file is physically moved to a cursor position so it takes a lot of cursor moving to order files. A solution to this problem is presented later.
Using MSCRIPT V 5, I found that a ProFile file will indeed load into it as a file by using the LOAD command (file name must be used). The screen display at first was quite a surprise because each file line, including “*” and date were included. Whenever an asterisk was shown the next file came immediately after it if there was space left on the line for a word. My first reaction was to place an end-of-line marker after each asterisk but this was not necessary as I found out. Also windowing does not extend the lines but it will compress the lines if desired.
Perhaps an explanation of my final (to date) method will explain a practical application. As the cursor can be moved to the top of file with a key press I elected to move the name files to the top of file position, last file being moved first. In this case WYNCOOP file was searched for, a marker was set after the asterisk of the previous file and a marker was set after the asterisk of this file. The cursor was then moved to the top of file. The move key was used to move the file, then the delete key was used to delete the old file, followed by a marker remove key. Now it was necessary to insert end-of-line markers because the lines were usually less than 32 characters and a print-out will spill lines without the markers even tho it doesn’t show this way on the screen. In this manner each name was searched for in order and moved. An empty line was added between each name file for printing separation.
After this system was tested for block print, I tried moving a name file at column 40 opposite a current file so 2 columns could be printed. I found that empty character spaces were required to move the cursor to this column- a lot of key pushing. A name file was selected amd move markers were set. The move key was pressed and the file was moved but only the first line was in position, the remaining lines were moved to the left column. I guess the end of line markers were automatically moved to column 1.
The printing procedure was to set block printing markers for the first set of files for the left column. Before doing this I marked the top of paper position for reference so I could return the paper exactly to this position. A line length of 32 was used and the appropriate page length put in. The left column was printed with a margin of 5 to allow for punching holes if desired. Then the markers were removed, the paper returned to the beginning mark, margin was set for 45, line length was kept at 32 and page spacing was left to move the paper to the next page position.
Multiple page printing could be accomplished with the printing of the required number of left columns first and then separating the printed sheets plus 1 from the stack and feeding the first page into the printer again, stopping at the mark. Then the second column sequence could be started as above. The essential requirement is to be sure that form feed is working properly.
An alternate method for printing the second column would be to use the printer left margin code but MSCRIPT has an easy margin setting that can be toggled.