Starting

Here’s how to handle databases by using Q&A versions 3 and 4 for DOS. (Version 5 resembles version 4. Versions 1, 1.1, and 2 resemble version 3.)

Prepare yourself

Before using Q&A to handle databases, practice using Q&A to handle word processing, by reading pages 178-182. For example, I assume you’ve followed the instructions on page 178 about how to "Make Q&A act better".

The main menu

Q&A MAIN MENU

F - File

R - Report

W - Write

A - Assistant

U - Utilities

X - Exit Q&A

If you’re using version 4 and have a mouse, you’ll see a small red rectangle in the middle of the screen. Move that rectangle out of the way — to the screen’s top right corner — by rolling the mouse toward your desk’s back right corner.

The file menu

To make Q&A handle databases, choose "F - File" from the main menu by pressing the F key. (That works if you followed the instructions on page 172 about how to "Make Q&A act better". If you did not follow those instructions, you must press ENTER after pressing F — and you must press ENTER after choosing any item from any menu.)

(Version 3 lacks "T - Post" and "U - Utilities". You see "B - Backup" instead.)

Whenever you’re done filing, you should return to the main menu by pressing the Esc key several times. Then you can exit by pressing X. That’s the only correct way to stop using Q&A’s database. Do not just turn off the power! If you turn off the power without pressing X first, you might wreck the data files you created.

Field commands

Add new records Ctrl F6

Calculate F8

Calculate mode Shift F8

Customize file Shift F9

Date Ctrl F5

Delete field/line Shift F4

Delete field/line end Ctrl F4

Delete record F3

Delete word F4

Ditto field F5

Ditto record Shift F5

Edit field F6

File menu Shift F10

Help F1

Macro Shift F2

Macro run Alt F2 just in version 4

Mask override Alt F4 just in version 4

Next record F10

Previous record F9

Print record F2

Print remaining records Ctrl F2

Reset @NUMBER Ctrl F8

Retrieve spec Alt F8 just in version 4

Search for records F7

Search options Ctrl F7

Table Alt F6

Table definition Shift F6

Time Alt F5

Undo edit Shift F7 just in version 4

Values permitted Alt F7 just in version 4

Put that chart (or a photocopy of it) next to the computer.

The rest of this chapter explains how to use the file menu and the field commands.

Design file

Here’s how to design a new file. From the file menu, choose "D - Design file" (by pressing D).

R - Redesign a file

C - Customize a file

P - Program a file

S - Secure a file

A - Customize application

(In version 3, the bottom three choices are missing.)

Look back on page 148, at the sample file of students in the School of Life. Let’s create that file and call it STUDENTS. To do that, press the D key (which chooses "D -Design a new file" from the menu), type "students", then press ENTER.

Type the form

Most of the screen will become blank. On the blank screen, type a form, which you’ll fill in later. For example, if you want to store each student’s last name, first name, age, and class, plus comments, type this form:

Last name: First name:

Age: Class:

Comments:

Here’s how. Type the word "Last", then a space, then the word "name", then a colon. Move to the right (by holding down the right-arrow key or space bar or TAB key), then type the phrase "First name", then a colon. Press the ENTER key, and type the lines underneath.

That form creates five fields: last name, first name, age, class, and comments. Each field name ends with a colon.

When you’ve finished typing the form, copy it onto the hard disk, by pressing the F10 key.

Examine the T screen

On the screen, you’ll see the form you typed. The computer automatically puts a T in each field, so your screen looks like this:

Last name: T First name: T

Age: T Class: T

Comments: T

Move the cursor

The cursor’s at the first T. To move the cursor around the screen, you can use the arrow keys.

To move the cursor faster, use the TAB key (which is next to the Q key). When you press the TAB key, the cursor moves to the next field.

For example, if the cursor’s at the T for "Last name", and you press the TAB key, the cursor will move to the T for "First name". If you press the TAB key again, the cursor will move to the T for "Age".

Experiment! Try moving the cursor around the screen by using the TAB key.

Unfortunately, the TAB key is hard for your fingers to reach. To move the cursor more easily, tap the ENTER key instead. (While you’re manipulating a form, the ENTER key imitates the TAB key.)

So to move the cursor ahead to the next field, tap TAB or ENTER. To move back to the previous field, tap TAB (not ENTER) while holding down the Shift key.

Change T to N

For example, since you want the person’s "Age" to be a number, you must change Age’s T to N. To do that, move the cursor to the Age’s T (by pressing the TAB key), then type N.

You can type either N or n. The computer doesn’t care about capitalization.

Also change Class’s T to N, so your screen looks like this:

Last name: T First name: T

Age: N Class: N

Comments: T

That tells the computer that the person’s age and class are Numbers, and everything else about the person consists of words and other general Text.

Finish

Press the F10 key. The computer will say GLOBAL FORMAT OPTIONS.

Press F10 again. You’ll see the file menu again.

Congratulations! You’ve created a STUDENTS database on your hard disk! That database consists of two files (STUDENTS.DTF and STUDENTS.IDX) in the QA subdirectory.

Add data

You’ve seen how to make the computer put a file called STUDENTS onto the disk. Although the file is organized so that each record will consist of five fields, the file doesn’t contain any records yet, since it doesn’t yet contain the names and data about any specific students.

To add the names of specific students and the data about them, choose "A - Add data" from the file menu (by pressing A). Press ENTER.

The screen will show the form you designed:

Last name: First name:

Age: Class:

Comments:

Then fill in the blanks.

For example, suppose one of the students is Suzy Smith. Fill in the form to look like this:

Last name: Smith First name: Suzy

Age: 4 Class: 12

Comments: Though just 4 years old, she finished high school because she's fast.

Here’s how. Type Smith, then move the cursor to the next field by pressing ENTER (or TAB). Type Suzy, then press ENTER. Type 4, then ENTER. Type 12, then ENTER. Type the commentary sentence.

When you’ve finished filling in Suzy Smith’s form, say "Next record" (by pressing F10). Then the computer will show a blank form again:

Last name: First name:

Age: Class:

Comments:

Fill in the blanks again, for the next student (Clara Bell).

Repeat that process for each student. As you type the students’ records, the computer automatically copies them to the STUDENTS.DTF file (which is in your hard disk’s QA subdirectory).

Move the cursor

To move the cursor a short distance, use the arrow keys. Here’s how to move the cursor farther:

TAB the next field

Shift with TAB the previous field

HOME the beginning of the field

END the end of the field

HOME HOME the first field on the screen

END END the last field on the screen

F10 the next record

F9 the previous record

Ctrl with HOME the first record you added during this session

Ctrl with END the last record you added during this session

Delete

If you make a mistake, point at it (by moving the cursor there), then tell the computer how much to delete.

To delete just one character, press the Del key. To delete a whole word, say "Delete word" (by pressing F4). To delete everything you typed in the field, say "Delete field/line" (by pressing Shift with F4). To delete everything you typed in the whole record, say "Delete record" (by pressing F3); when the computer asks "Are you sure?", press Y.

Ditto

If you move the cursor to a field and then say "Ditto field" (by pressing F5), the computer will make the data in that field be a copy of the previous student’s. To make the entire record be a copy of the previous student’s, say "Ditto record" (by pressing Shift with F5).

Edit (just in version 4)

If you have version 4, try this trick: while you’re typing words in a field, say "Edit field" (by pressing F6).

A gigantic box will appear at the bottom of the screen. The words you typed appear in that box. Since the box is big, it can hold lots of words. Type as many as you wish! You can even type a long essay about the student! When you type near the box’s bottom, the text in the box automatically moves out of the way, so you can type even more! You can type many pages! While you’re typing them, you’re using Q&A’s word processor, so you can use all the word-processing tricks you learned: press ENTER at the end of each paragraph, press TAB to indent a paragraph, and use page 154’s table to give advanced word-processing commands (such as "Spell" and "Thesaurus").

When you finish typing in the box, press the F10 key.

In the future, whenever you want to see or edit that boxed essay again, move the cursor to that field and say "Edit field" (F6) again.

Finish

When you finish typing the last student’s record, and you still see that record on the screen, say "File menu" by pressing Shift with F10 (instead of saying "Next record"). Then the screen will display the file menu again (instead of waiting for you to type another record).

Search/update

To search through the file to find a particular student, choose "S - Search/update" from the file menu (by pressing S). Press ENTER.

The screen will show the form you designed again:

Last name: First name:

Age: Class:

Comments:

When you finish examining and revising the record, choose one of these actions:

see the next Smith "Next record" (by pressing F10)

see the previous Smith "Previous record" (by pressing F9)

see the first Smith Ctrl with HOME

see the final Smith Ctrl with END

see the file menu "File menu" (by pressing Shift with F10)

delete this Smith & see the next Smith "Delete record" (F3) then Y

undo the revisions "Undo edit" (Shift F7, just in version 4)

undo the revisions & see the file menu press Esc, then usually Y

search for other records (not Smiths) "Search for records" (by pressing F7)

create other records & add them to file "Add new records" (by pressing Ctrl with F6)

If the computer can’t find who you’re searching for (because there aren’t any Smiths or there isn’t any "next Smith" or "previous Smith"), the computer will say "No forms" or "No more forms" or "No previous form". Press the Esc key, which makes the computer show the file menu.

Fancy search techniques

If you tell the computer to search for "smith" instead of "Smith", the computer will still find all the Smiths, since the computer doesn’t care about capitalization.

If you tell the computer to search for "S.." instead of "Smith" (by putting "S.." in the last name field), the computer will get everybody whose last name begins with "S". Saying "..th" gets names ending with "th". Saying "..m.." gets names containing an "m". Saying "S..h" gets every name that begins with S and ends with h. Saying "S????" gets every name that contains an S followed by exactly 4 more letters.

Suppose somebody phones to ask you about a student; but the phone connection is poor (with lots of static) and the person also mumbles. You think he’s asking about somebody named "Cuzomskuh", but you’re not sure. Tell the computer to find all the students that sound like "Cuzomskuh". To do that, put "~Cuzomskuh" in the last name field. The symbol ~ means "sounds like". (On the original IBM keyboard, it’s next to the ENTER key; on the new IBM keyboard, it’s next to the 1 key; on the Leading Edge keyboard, it’s next to the BACKSPACE key. While typing it, you must hold down the Shift key.) The computer will find Kosinski and any other students that sound like "Cuzomskuh".

To find everybody who’s less than 10 years old, say "<10". For greater than 10, say ">10". For greater than or equal to 10, say ">=10". For greater than 10 but less than 18, say ">10..<18".

To find the oldest student, say "max". To find the youngest, say "min".

To find the 3 oldest students, say "max3". The computer will show you the oldest student, then the next oldest, then the 3rd oldest.

In the age field, if you say just "=" (instead of "=10"), the computer will find everybody whose age is equal to nothing: it will find everybody whose age was left blank. To find everybody whose age is not blank, ask for "/=".

For example, if you ask for the names that are "<Smith" (by putting "<Smith" in the last name field), the computer will find all names "less than Smith", which means all names that come before Smith in the dictionary. Asking for ">Smith" gets you all names that come after Smith in the dictionary.

The computer will let you type the rest of the request at the bottom of the screen; do so. When you finish typing the request, move on to the next field (by pressing ENTER) or make the computer start searching (by pressing F10).

Multi-field search

Suppose you want to find everybody who’s old and stupid. Specifically, suppose you want to find everybody whose age is over 40 and who still hasn’t finished the second grade. Put ">40" in the age field, and put "<3" in the class field.

The computer will find Heinz Ketchopf (who’s 57 years old and in the first grade) and Russy-poo Walter (who’s 44 years old and whose class is 0). They’re the students who are old and stupid.

Suppose you want to find the students who are old or stupid. To do that, put ">40" in the age field, put "<3" in the class field, then say "Search options" (by pressing Ctrl with F7). Move the cursor down, then across to the word ANY. Press F10. The computer will find Buffalo Bob Smith, Heinz Ketchopf, Tricky Dick Nixon, and Russy-poo Walter, because each of them is either old or stupid.

Sort

When you’ve told the computer which records to search for, you normally press F10, which makes the computer start searching.

Instead of just pressing F10, try doing the following: say "Calculate" (by pressing F8), then type "1a" in the field that interests you most, then finally press F10.

That makes the computer display the records in alphabetical or numerical order. For example, if you put "1a" in the last name field, the computer will display the records in alphabetical order, by last name. If you put "1a" in the age field instead, the computer will display the student records in order of age, starting with the youngest student.

Table

Suppose you search for youngsters (by saying "Age: <18" and then pressing F10). When the computer shows you the first youngster’s record, say "Table" (by pressing Alt with F6). The computer will display this table, which shows the records of all youngsters simultaneously:

In that table, each row is a record. The top row is Suzy Smith’s record. The bottom row is Stanislaw Kosinski’s record.

Each column is a field. The left column is the "Last name" field. The last column is the "Comments" field.

Since the screen is narrow, it shows just 5 thin columns. Look at Stanislaw Kosinski’s "Comments" field. Since the column’s too thin to show his entire Comments field ("He dislikes Polish jokes"), the column shows just the first few characters ("He dislikes P") and a right-arrow (which tells you that the field contains more characters). Version 3 doesn’t bother to show the right-arrow.

If you’re using version 4, you can edit the table while you stare at it. Just move the cursor down to the row you want to edit (by pressing the down-arrow key), and move the cursor across to the field you want to edit (by pressing the TAB key). Here’s what to do next:

If you want to retype the field’s info completely (and it’s short), go ahead: retype it!

If you want to edit the field’s info slightly (and it’s short), just press F5 and then edit.

If the field’s info is long (so you see "’ "), do this: press F6, then edit, then press F10.

If a file contains more than 5 fields, the table usually shows just the first 5 fields. If you’re using version 4, you can see the other fields by pressing the TAB key several times.

Here’s another way to see 5 different fields (in both versions 3 and 4). Say "Table definition" (by pressing Shift with F6). In the five fields you want to see, type the numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5. Make sure those numbers aren’t in any other fields. Then press F10.

The screen’s tall enough to show 17 rows of the table. To see other rows of a long table, press the PgDn key.

After viewing the table, move the cursor to the row that interests you most, then press F10. The screen will show all details of that row’s record.

Print

Whenever the screen shows a student’s record, you can print that record on paper. Just say "Print record" (by pressing F2), then press F10.

To have more fun instead, say "Print remaining records" (by pressing Ctrl with F2), then press F10. The computer will print the record, then print all subsequent records in the bunch you were examining or adding.

The print menu

To do fancier printing, get the file menu onto the screen, then choose "P - Print" (by pressing P). Press ENTER.

Invent a name for the printout you’ll create. The name can be up to 31 characters long, and it can even contain blank spaces. Type the name, then press F10.

The computer will show a blank form. Fill in the blanks to tell the computer which records to print. For example, to print all the Smiths, put "Smith" in the "Last name" field; then press F10.

The computer will show another blank form. Choose one of these three strategies.…

When you’ve chosen one of those three strategies (and filled in the form appropriately), press F10.

The computer will say "FILE PRINT OPTIONS". If you want the computer to print the field labels (so that the computer will print "Last name: Smith" instead of printing just "Smith"), move the cursor down to "Print field labels?", then move left to "Yes".

Press F10 again, then ENTER. The computer will print the records you requested, then show you the print menu again.

If you want to repeat the printing, choose "P - Print records" from that menu. (In version 3, choose "P - Print forms".) Move the cursor to your printout’s name. Press F10 then ENTER. The computer will repeat the printing and show you the print menu again.

When you don’t want to do any more printing, press Esc. you’ll see the file menu again.

Report

Invent a name for the report you’ll create. The name can be up to 31 characters long, and it can even contain blank spaces. Type the name, then press F10. (If you’re using version 4, then choose "C - Columnar report" by pressing C.)

The computer will show a blank form. Fill in the blanks, to tell the computer who to report on. For example, if you want to report on just the Smiths, put "Smith" in the "Last name" field. To report on everybody (which is what I suggest), leave the form blank.

Press F10. The computer will show another blank form. This report will consist of several columns. Put 1 in the field that you want to be the leftmost column, 2 in the field that you want to be the next column, etc. For example, if you want the person’s last name to be the leftmost column, the first name to be the next column, and the age to be the third column, type this:

Last name: 1 First name: 2

Age: 3 Class:

Comments:

Better yet, put an "as" in the last name field, and put an "a" in the age field, like this:

Last name: 1,as First name: 2

Age: 3,a Class:

Comments:

In the last name field, the "as" stands for "ascending sort"; it forces the computer to print the last names in alphabetical order. In the age field, the "a" stands for "average": it makes the computer print the average age.

When you finish filling in that form, press F10 twice, then ENTER. The computer will print this report:

Last name First name Age

--------- ----------- -----

Bell Clara 21.00

Ketchopf Heinz 57.00

Kosinski Stanislaw 16.00

Nixon Tricky Dick 78.00

Smith Suzy 4.00

Buffalo Bob 7.00

Walter Russy-poo 44.00

========= =========== =====

Average: 32.43

Notice that the computer alphabetizes the left column, clumps the two Smiths together, and prints the average age. The computer automatically makes each column wide enough to fit even the longest names and numbers.

When the computer finishes printing the report, it shows the report menu again.

If you want to print the report again, choose "P - Print a report" from that menu (by pressing P). Press ENTER. Move the cursor to your report’s name. Press F10 then ENTER. The computer will reprint the report and show you the report menu again.

When you don’t want to print any more reports, press Esc. You’ll see the main menu again.

Besides telling you the column’s average (for which the code is "a"), Q&A can also tell you the column’s total ("t"), count ("c"), largest number ("max"), smallest number ("min"), and all subtotals ("st"). To make Q&A do so, just put those codes in the blanks.

Mail merge

Suppose you want to write a personalized letter to each student, so that Suzy Smith’s letter will say —

Dear Suzy,

Come to the party for grade 12 on Saturday.

and Clara Bell’s letter will say —

Dear Clara,

Come to the party for grade 10 on Saturday.

Here’s how.…

First, get into the word processor. (To do that, get to the file menu, then get to the main menu by pressing Esc, then choose "W - Write" from the menu, then choose "T - Type/edit" from the next menu.)

Type this form letter:

Dear *First name*,

Come to the party for grade *Class* on Saturday.

To type it, begin by typing the word "Dear", then tap the space bar once.

To create the "*First name*", do the following. Say "Field" (by pressing Alt with F7). The computer will ask you for the name of the file; type "students" then ENTER. The computer will display this list:

FIELD NAMES

Class

Comments

First name

Last name

Move the cursor to "First name", then ENTER. The computer will automatically type "*First name*" in the middle of your memo.

Then type the rest of the form letter. Remember to type the comma after *First name*, and remember that you can make the computer automatically type *Class* for you, by pressing Alt with F7.

When you finish typing the form letter, say "Print" (by pressing F2). Then press F10.

You’ll see a blank form. Use it to say which students will get the letter. (For example, to send the letter to just the Smiths, put "Smith" in the last name field. To send the letter to all the students, leave the fields blank.) Press F10 then ENTER.

When the computer finishes, you’ll be using Q&A’s word processor again. To leave the word processor, press Esc twice; if the computer asks "Are you SURE?", press Y. You’ll see the Q&A main menu.

Mass moves

Here’s how to manipulate many records at once.…

Mass update

Suppose Mr. Smith — the father of Suzy Smith and Buffalo Bob Smith — dies. His wife, Mrs. Smith, remarries and changes her name to Mrs. Finkelstein. She also changes the names of her kids, so that "Suzy Smith" becomes "Suzy Finkelstein", and "Buffalo Bob Smith" becomes "Buffalo Bob Finkelstein".

We must tell the computer to turn the Smiths into Finkelsteins. Since Suzy and Buffalo Bob are such wonderful kids, we’ll also move them into super-advanced classes that are ten times their ages: we’ll move Suzy (who is 6) into class 60, and move Buffalo Bob (who is 7) into class 70. Here’s how to do all that.…

From the file menu, choose "M - Mass update" (by pressing M). Press ENTER. You’ll see a blank form.

Tell the computer who to search for. Since you want the computer to search for all the Smiths, type "Smith" in the last name field, then press F10.

You’ll see another blank form. Tell the computer how to change the Smiths’ records, by typing this:

Last name: #1="Finkelstein" First name:

Age: #2 Class: #3=10*#2

Comments:

Notice you must put #1, #2, and #3 in the three fields involved (Last name, Age, and Class). To make field #1 (which is Last name) become Finkelstein, say #1="Finkelstein". To make field #3 (which is Class) become 10 times field #2 (Age), say #3=10*#2.

When you finish typing all that, press F10 then N. The computer will change the Smiths to Finkelsteins and make their classes become 10 times their ages. Then you’ll see the file menu again.

From the file menu, choose "M - Mass update". Press ENTER. You’ll see a blank form. Without typing any restrictions, just press F10 (since you want to update all students).

You’ll see another blank form. Since you want to increase each student’s class by 5, you should make the class be called "field #1" and add 5 to it. To do that, say "Class: #1=5+#1", which means "the Class is field #1; and field #1 will become equal to 5 more than what it had been." Then press F10.

The computer will increase each student’s class by 5. Then you’ll see the file menu.

Remove

Suppose all the Finkelsteins are murdered. Let’s remove them from the file.

To remove the Finkelsteins, choose "R - Remove" from the file menu by pressing R. Press ENTER. (If you’re using version 4, then choose "S - Selected records" by pressing S.)

You’ll see a blank form. In the last name field, type "Finkelstein".

Press F10 then Y. The computer will delete all the Finkelstein records. Then you’ll see the file menu again.

Backup

Here’s how to make the second copy of STUDENTS.

If you’re using version 3, choose "B - Backup" from the file menu by pressing B. If you’re using version 4, choose "U -Utilities" from the file menu by pressing U, then choose "B - Backup database" by pressing B.

Press ENTER.

The computer will say "Backup to:". To copy STUDENTS to the disk in drive A, put a blank formatted disk into drive A, say "Delete line" (Shift F4), type "a:students", then press ENTER. The computer will copy STUDENTS from the hard disk to drive A.

If you’re using version 4, press Esc to see the file menu again.

Copy

Let’s create a DOGS file about a dog-obedience school. We want the DOGS file to contain the same design that we used in the STUDENTS file, so a sample DOGS record will look like this:

Last name: McGregor First name: Lassie

Age: 2 Class: 12

Comments: She's a brilliant collie. Named after her grandma, a TV star!

Here’s how to create the DOGS file, so it uses the same design as the STUDENTS file but doesn’t contain the names of humans.

From the file menu, choose "C - Copy" (by pressing C). Press ENTER.

The computer will create file called DOGS, having the same design as STUDENTS but without any data in it.

You’ll see the copy menu again. Press Esc, to see the file menu again.

Customize

You can customize Q&A to meet your personal needs.

For example, let’s create a database of all your friends and customers around the world. Let’s store each person’s address and phone number (to replace your phone book and Rolodex and create a mailing list). Let’s also store comments about each person and date the comments, to make the file act as a diary.

Suppose some of those people occasionally send you money. Let’s record how much each person sends and make Q&A compute the totals, so Q&A does your accounting.

Suppose you’re in Massachusetts, and some of the money you receive is for goods you sell. Let’s make Q&A compute the 5% sales tax, so Q&A does your taxes.

Here’s how to make Q&A do all that.…

Type the form

From Q&A’s file menu, choose "D - Design file" (by pressing D). When you see the design menu, tap the D key (to choose "D - Design a new file"), type "friends" (which will be the name for the file), and press ENTER.

On the blank screen, type this form:

Here’s how to draw a box. Place the cursor where you want the box’s upper-left corner. Give the word-processing command for "Draw". (To do that in version 3, press F8 then D. To do that in version 4, press F8 then L then D.) Move the cursor towards the right; as you move it, you’ll be drawing the box’s top line. Draw the box’s other three lines by moving the cursor down, then left, then up until you’ve returned to the upper-left corner. Then press F10.

Later, when the data-entry operator adds new records to the file by typing in data, the computer will permit the operator to "fill in the 42 blanks" by filling in 42 characters. The computer will prevent the operator from typing on or past the ">".

That prevents the operator from being too long-winded and typing too much to fit on tiny mailing labels.

The symbols "<" and ">" surround the area in which the operator can type comments. If you omit the symbol ">", the computer will restrict the operator to just one line of comments.

When you create a multi-line field, Q&A prohibits you from having other symbols nearby. Specifically, you can’t put a multi-line field in a box, and you can’t put two multi-line fields side-by-side.

Change the format codes

You’ll see the form you typed (except that the symbols "<" and ">" are hidden). The computer automatically puts format code T in each field, but you must change some of those T’s to other codes instead. To do so, move the cursor to each T (by pressing TAB, ENTER, or arrow keys), then edit some of the T’s, to make your screen look like this:

Here’s why.

The format code for Zip should be TU because some of the customers are in Canada, where Zip codes have capital letters in them.

If you like all that but want the computer to omit the dollar sign, replace the "M" by "N2" (which means "number with 2 digits after the decimal point").

The customize menu

From the file menu, choose "D - Design file" again. From the next menu, choose "C - Customize a file" (by pressing C). Press ENTER.

R - Restrict values

T - Field template

I - Set initial values

S - Speed up searches

D - Define custom help

C - Change palette

(Instead of "T - Field template", version 3 has "P - Program form", "E - Edit lookup table", and "A - Assign access rights".)

Let’s see how to use the most popular choices.

Fill in a few fields, notice the screen’s color scheme, and then press F8. The colors on the screen will change. (If you have a monochrome monitor, the underlines will disappear.)

Each time you press F8, the colors, underlines, boldfacing, etc. will change again. When you finally see a color scheme you like, press F10, to return to the customize menu.

The bottom of the screen shows the palette’s number. The most practical palettes are #2 and #3. They’re the only palettes that show clearly which field you’re editing.

If your monitor is monochrome, choose palette #3. If your monitor is CGA color, choose palette #2. If your monitor is EGA or VGA color, choose either palette #3 (whose high contrast is the easiest to read) or palette #2 (whose soft blues will make you fall in love).

You’ll see a blank form. If you fill in some of the fields now, the operator won’t have to fill them in later.

For example, if most of your customers are in San Francisco, California (because you grew up there and still advertise there), put "San Francisco" in the city field and "CA" in the state field. Put "@date" in the date field. Then press F10.

Later, when your data-entry operator adds new records, the computer will automatically fill in some of the fields by typing San Francisco, CA, and the correct date. The operator can edit what the computer typed, when the operator needs to deal with a customer that’s not in San Francisco or not in California or whose record must be postdated.

Type in any restrictions you want to put on the data. For example, to restrict the price to under $50,000, type "<50000" in the price field. To restrict the sales tax code to T, R, or N, type "T;R;N" in the sales tax code field (after widening the field by pressing F6). When you finish typing the restrictions, press F10.

Later, if the data-entry operator tries to bypass a restriction (by typing a huge price or typing a wrong sales tax code), the computer will type this warning:

Value not in specified range. Please verify before continuing.

Although the computer types that warning, the computer permits the operator to keep that unusual data in the file (so that the operator can handle unusual customers). The warning just alerts the operator that the value typed was nonstandard. That warning helps the operator notice typographical and clerical errors.

Type an S in each field that you often use for searching. For example, since you often look up a customer’s record by using the customer’s last name, type an S in the last name field. I recommend that you type an S in the last name field, company field, Zip field, and data field.

Although the S makes the computer search faster, the S has two drawbacks: its index consumes a lot of space on the disk, and the computer must pause to update the index whenever you add a new record.

Because of those drawbacks, do not put an S in every field! Put an S in just the three or four fields that you search on most often.

When you finish typing the S’s, press F10.

Program

To get total control over the computer, program it!

If you’re using version 4, choose "P - Program a file" from the design menu, then press ENTER, then choose "P - Program form". If you’re using version 3, choose "P - Program form" from the customize menu.

You’ll see a blank form.

Let’s make the computer automatically compute the Sales tax and Total. The computation involves four fields: the Price (which we’ll call field #1), Sales tax code (#2), Sales tax (#3), and Total (#4).

Make the Price be field #1, by typing "#1" in the Price’s blank.

Make the Sales tax code be field #2, by typing "#2" in the Sales tax code blank.

Make the Total be field #4 and also be the Price plus the Sales tax, by typing this in the Total blank: "#4=#1+#3".

In Massachusetts, which has a "5% sales tax", how much money should the Sales tax be? If a sale is taxable (because the Sales tax code is T), the Sales tax should be 5% of the Price. That means field #3 (which is the Sales tax) should equal .05 times field #1 (which is the Price). If the sale is not taxable, the Sales tax should be 0 instead. To explain all that to the computer, type this in the Sales tax blank (after pressing F6 to widen the field):

#3: if #2="T" then #3=.05*#1 else #3=0

When you type that line, make sure you type quotation marks around the "T". That line tells the computer that for this field (field #3), do the following computation: if field #2 (the Sales tax code) equals "T", then make field #3 equal .05 times field #1; otherwise, make field #3 equal 0.

After filling in the blanks that way, press F10. Later, when the data-entry operator enters a customer’s record, the operator can fill in just the Price and Sales Tax code and then say "Calculate" (by pressing F8), which makes the computer obey your programming and automatically fill in the Sales tax and Total.