When at the main menu, enter a search command that ends with the reverse slash and the letter “U”. The program will then ask what line you wish to change followed by what data will be changed, and then ask for the new data. When all that information has been entered, the program will find the first file that fits your search command and display it on the screen. It then checKs the line number you input (1-15) and if it starts with the data you input it will change the line to hold the new data. It will then continue on to the next match until all appropriate files have been corrected. Please note that all files displayed, whether changed or not, are deleted from the program and then added back on to the end. Therefore your files are no longer in the same order (you could do this deliberately to group certain files together).
You can change any data you wish on a line from nothing to all 32 characters but the data to be changed must begin at the start of the line! If you wish to change “STUDENT FILE NUMBER: ” to be “STUDENT RECORD NUMBER: ” you would input the data to change to be “STUDENT FILE” and the new data to be “STUDENT RECORD* because you must start with the first character. Remember this when you set up your data. If your data is indented on the screen you must provide the leading spaces on the data you are searching for. The new data can be shorter or longer than the original. Just remember that anything you type in for data to be changed will be completely deleted and then the new data will be inserted. Any other data on that line will be moved left or right as necessary. If the new data length combined with the remaining data is greater than 32 the ending characters of the old data will be cut off permanently (this can be used to your advantage).
There are two main uses for this routine. One is to update information. I use this to alter my student’s records each year. I go through my files checking for all students in 12th grade and changing “12th” to “GRADUATED”, “11th” to “12th”, “10th” to “11th”, etc. Consider carefully the order you change things in. If I started with the 10th grade first and made them 11th and then changed the 11th grade to 12th I would actually end up with all 12th graders!
The other main use would be in setting up new files. I set up a lot of skeleton files – just an asterisk (X) followed by a special code I will search for later. Since almost all my students have the same address as far as City, state and zip code are concerned I do an update search for my special code, select line 3 to change (where the City, State, Zip goes), input “” as the data to change, and “SUMMERVILLE, GA 30747” as the new data. Now the program will automatically insert the address in every one of those files. With 100 new students I just saved about 2000 keystrokes!
The routine can also be used to cover information you decide you no longer want Бу entering 32 spaces as the пеш data.
As the program runs you can pause it by holding down the space bar. When a file appears wait until you see some instructions flashing at the bottom of the screen. Now vou can release the space bar. To continue press another Key (but not space). To stop the routine press BREAK. Warning: The data on the screen has already been deleted and the only way to save it is to continue the program. If you use break the data is lost! The pause is really just to allow you to make a note of any file change that you didn’t want to occur so you can correct it when done.
This is a very powerful routine but also dangerous. You may think you are only going to change the grade a student is in for example, but if you happen to have some files with a 12th street in that same line and position it will be changed as well! Careful planning of file organization helps as well as the use of codes. My grades are followed by a “-” and the year the student entered band class such as “10th-1980” so by changing “10th-” instead of “10th” I help avoid problems.
I suggest you practice on a file tape which is safely backed up until you get used to it.