Part 2: Using Softfile

Starting the Program

1. clear the screen,
2. display the name of the program, a version number, and a copyright message near the top of the screen,
3. pause, and
4. display the message

   ...Press SPACE BAR to proceed

   near the bottom of the screen.

Once again the screen should clear, and a list of command words will appear near the top of the screen, with the symbol ">" on the next line, followed by the cursor. The cursor is the underline or rectangular block which shows where the next character you type will appear.

The list of commands is on the prompt line, which guides you by showing your alternatives as you work. The cursor is on the input line, which shows what you have entered so far and awaits your further input.

Entering Information

To try this, press N for "New". This is the command to create a new record for entering information into Softfile. Notice that Softfile displays >New, on the input line and changes the prompt line to show your choices:

If you do not really want to create a new record, you can press SPACE BAR to go back to the main menu (the list of Softfile commands). This choice is always available, but it is never shown on the prompt line.

For now, let's create a new record. You haven't created any forms yet, so press RETURN to get a blank screen on which you can enter something. The prompt line changes to

The cursor will move below the input line to the text area. You can enter information into this record and move around with the arrow keys. Many other editing commands are discussed in the next section.

There are two ways to stop changing the text area and get back to the input line. As noted on the prompt line, you can press ESC ESC (in other words, press the ESC key twice). Or, if the cursor is on the last line of the text area, you can press RETURN.

You need not do anything special to save the information on the screen. Softfile will save it for you when you press ESC ESC. The information stays on the screen. If you wish to make further changes, press DOWN ARROW. This puts the cursor back into the text area and allows changes.

You can create as many new records as you like with the New command. Whenever you use the command New, RETURN you'll start with a blank screen. The information which was on the screen, however, will always be saved. The fact that it disappears from the screen does not mean Softfile has forgotten it. Softfile has no special "save" command, so you don't have to worry that you will neglect to save something.

Attached records

Softfile also has a way to connect a new record to an existing one. Whenever you have a record on the screen, you can use the Attach command (Attach, RETURN) to create another record attached to the old one. After you finish entering the attached record, press ESC ESC as usual.

This record is now attached to the one entered before it. Press . (a period) to display the first record. Press RETURN to go back to the second record.

Each record can be attached to two others, one next record and one previous record. When you use the New command, you create a record which has no "next" or "previous" records attached to it. However, when you use the Attach command, the new record is attached "after" the one which was on the screen.

If your keyboard has a numeric keypad, you will notice that the "period" key and the "Enter" key are next to one another. Press RETURN (the "Enter" key) for the next record. Press . (the "period" key) for the previous record.

Suppose you create a record, call it A, with the New command. It is attached to nothing. Enter something and press ESC ESC to return to the input line. Then, with A still on the screen, create record B with the Attach command.

      next
    ------->
A             B
    <-------
    previous

      next         next
    ------->     ------->
A             C            B
    <-------     <-------
    previous     previous

If you delete a record in a chain, that record is removed but the chain is not broken. In our previous example, we have the chain A-C-B. If we delete record C, by getting it on the screen and using the command Delete, This record, Yes, we are left with the chain A-B.

WARNING: When you delete a record, it is gone forever. There is no way to get it back. That is why the Delete command always asks if you really want to delete the record.

Finally, you can break the chain between any two records. Suppose records A and B are attached. From record A, the next record is record B. Go to record A and give the command Delete, Next. As a result, A will have no next record and B will have no previous record. Record B is not deleted; only the chain from A to B is deleted.

The Editing Commands

Several editing commands consist of the combination CTRL-X followed by a letter:

When you press CTRL-X, you will see these choices listed at the bottom of the screen. Then press the appropriate letter to complete the command. For example, if you press CTRL-X T, the current time and date will appear on the screen at the cursor location. Softfile gets the time and date from the operating system, so if they are incorrect, your system clock needs to be reset.

When you type over existing text, either the characters replace what was there (overtype mode), or the old characters move over to make room (insert mode). The initial setting is overtype mode. The command CTRL-X I (or the INSERT key) changes to insert mode, and the top screen line shows the word INSERT. Use this command again and you'll go back to overtype mode. The word INSERT will be erased from the top line.

The reformat paragraph command, CTRL-X R, removes extra blank space from a paragraph. It only works on the text from the cursor position down, and it stops at the first line which begins with a blank space.

Text Boxes

[This is a sample   ]
[text box.          ]
[                   ]
[                   ]

You can create a text box by typing the brackets where you want them. Or, as a convenience, the Box command lets you point to the upper left and lower right corners with the cursor, and Softfile fills in the brackets. The Box command will not write brackets over existing text, but you can surround existing text with a box so long as the brackets go over blank spaces.

Perhaps you've noticed that the prompt line doesn't show the Box command. Actually, the menu can display two sets of commands, and the SPACE BAR switches between them. If you press SPACE BAR when Softfile is ready to accept a command, you will see the other commands, which include the Box command. You can use either set of commands, even if the command you want is not showing on the prompt line.

When you move the cursor into a text box, the editing commands will only affect text within that box. The CTRL-X D function, for example, will only delete the portion of the line within the box, and only text within the box is moved up to replace the empty line. The RETURN key will go to the left margin of the box rather than the left edge of the screen (except if you press RETURN on the last line of the box). The HOME key will put the cursor in the upper left corner of the box.

The cursor keys are not affected by boxes, so you can always use them to move anywhere on the screen. The TAB key also moves over box boundaries. However, whenever TAB crosses the left edge of a box, it stops after the left bracket. This is convenient if you are entering information into boxes.

You cannot erase brackets by typing over them. Use CTRL-X D or END with the cursor outside the box, or delete an individual bracket by placing the cursor on it and pressing DELETE.

Searching for Words

The records found by Softfile are called selected records. You have "selected" them from all the stored records. On the top screen line, you will see the number of records selected. The screen will display the first record which contains the words you specified.

You can now edit this record, delete it, or just look at it. The keystrokes RETURN and . (period) move you back and forth through the list of selected records. You can go to the first record in the list with Get, 1st (press G and 1) and the last record with Get, Last (press G and L).

In the earlier section on "Attached Records" we saw that RETURN and . move from the record on the screen to another record attached to it. However, when the top line shows the number of selected records, RETURN and . move from one selected record to another instead. You can change between these two views of your records with the commands View, Attached and View, Selected. The Find, Words command automatically shows selected records so you can see the results of your search.

If you have selected some records you do not want, you can eliminate them from the selected list in two ways. One way is to get the undesired record on the screen and press - (the minus sign or hyphen). Notice that the count on the top line is adjusted and a different selected record appears.

Sometimes it may be easier to specify words which should not appear in the selected records. Just use the Find command again, but use the word not to remove records which contain the word you do not want:

Records which were selected before, but which contain the word "attached", will be removed from the selected list.

You can also broaden a search by specifying an alternative word after or. If you say:

then records selected before, or records which contain the word "alternative", will be selected now. In other words, you keep the previous list and add to it any records which contain "alternative".

The Find, Words command can understand rather complex word expressions involving the words and, or, and not. This topic is described in Part 3 in the section "Word Expressions". For now, just note that the Find, Words command followed by several words will find each record which contains all the words. This is equivalent to putting the word and between the words.

If you want to specify alternative words, put or between the words:

This will find every record which contains either "various" or "alternative" (or both). If you want to find one phrase but exclude another, you can use the word not:

This finds records which deal with John Smith, but not if they also contain the words "personal computers".

Finally, you may wish to find variants of a word without specifying all the words exactly. Use a question mark to indicate that the rest of the word doesn't matter. For instance,

will find "compute", "computer", "computers", "computing", "computation", and so on. In this example, Softfile will select the records and tell you how many there are. It will not, however, show you which words it actually found. To see a list of the words, try this:

Marks

At the input line, just press M to mark the record on the screen. To see records which have been marked, use View, Marked records. The top line of the screen will show how many records have been marked, and you can move through the marked records with RETURN and ..

To remove the mark from a record on the screen, use Unmark, This record. To remove the marks from all records, use Unmark, All records, Yes.

When you leave Softfile, the marks are saved. The next time you use Softfile, the command View, Marked records will display the records you marked the last time.

The Initial Screen

To have no initial screen, first do Get, Record number, 0 (ignore the error message), then use Set, Global, Initial screen, Yes. Now when Softfile starts up there will be no record on the screen.

Printing

In addition to This record, the Output command gives you the choice of Selected records, Marked records, and Attached records. If you choose Selected records, all the selected records are output, regardless of what is on the screen. Similarly, Marked records outputs all the marked records. You can see which records are selected or marked by doing View, Selected records or View, Marked records if you wish, but you do not need to use these commands before the Output command.

If you choose Attached records for output, it does matter what is on the screen. Softfile will output the record on the screen and any other records attached after this one. It is as if you were to output the current record, press RETURN to display the next record, output that one, and keep repeating this until there was no next record. If you have a long chain of records, and you wish to output all of them, get the first one on the screen before you do Output, Attached records. To output part of a chain, mark the last record you want to output. Output will stop after the marked record. Softfile will also stop if the next record is the first record it output, which can only happen if you create a loop of attached records using Set, Next.

Output Options

OUTPUT OPTIONS for printer output

   [66]_ lines per page (paper length)
   [58]_ printed lines per page
   [ 0]_ blank lines at top of page
   [ 2]_ blank lines between records
   [ 0]_ blank columns before each line
   []
   [Y]_  Suppress blank lines at the end of a record?
   [N]_  Print record numbers and dates?
   [Y]_  Print brackets?
   [N]_  Print underlines?
   [Y]_  Use form feeds?
   []
   [Y]_  Direct output?  (N for spooled output)
   [prn                     ]_ Device for direct output
   [                        ]_ Pipe command for spooled output

You can alter these options by creating a Softfile record that looks like this list and making changes to it. First let's discuss the options, then we'll see how to get them into Softfile.

The first five items control the margins of the printed output. Softfile will not split a record across a page boundary, so there is often additional blank space at the end of each page.

The next five items are yes/no settings. You can suppress blank lines at the end of each record, to eliminate a lot of wasted space on the page. Each record can be identified by its record number (assigned automatically by Softfile), the date it was created, and the date and time it was last modified. Or you can eliminate this line.

The earlier section on text boxes discussed the use of brackets to create text areas which can be edited independently. You can eliminate the brackets from the printed output, for a neater appearance, if you wish.

You may choose whether or not to print underlines. The underline character has a special function in Softfile. Normally Softfile indexes all the text in a record. However, text which follows an underline (up to the next opening bracket, if any, or the end of the line otherwise) is not indexed. This is especially useful in forms. Each item description on the form is preceded by an underline. The information to be filled in is enclosed in brackets. Then Softfile only indexes the filled-in parts of the form. When Softfile finishes printing a page, it normally sends out the form feed code (12 decimal or 0C in hexadecimal) to the printer, which advances the printer to the next page. This code is understood by most printers, and is needed by most laser printers in order to eject the current page. However, if your printer cannot respond to this code, or if your printer's page length and top-of-page adjustments are set wrong, you might want to turn off form feeds. Then Softfile sends the proper number of line feed codes instead.

The final set of options determines where the "printed" text goes. If direct output is set to Y for "Yes", then the next line specifies where the characters are sent. It should be prn for MS-DOS or Microsoft Windows.

UNIX provides print spoolers to automatically handle printer sharing. You send your output to the spooler, and the spooler sends it to the printer as soon as the requested printer is available. To do this, set direct output to N for "No", and enter the name of the spooler program (and any necessary options, such as the printer name) two lines down.

You do not have to type all these options. If you included the sample data in your database when it was created, you already have options records. The command Get, Output options, Printer will bring the printer options to the screen. You can change any of the options just by editing this record. Or you can make a copy of this record with the Cut and Paste commands (described in a later section), make your changes to the copy, and make the copy your new printer options record with the command Set, Global, Output options, Printer.

Next you should take a look at the disk output options. If you have the sample data in your database, give the command Get, Output options, Disk. The screen should look something like this:

OUTPUT OPTIONS for disk (file) output

   [N]_  Append if file exists?
   [N]_  Print record numbers and dates?
   [Y]_  Print brackets?
   [Y]_  Print underlines?
   [Y]_  Print record separator string after each record?
   [Y]_  Suppress blank lines at the end of a record?
   [ 2]_ blank lines between records
   [] 
   [soft.out                ]_ Output file name
   [))                      ]_ Record separator string

With the options shown, each output-to-disk command will create a file "soft.out" which replaces any previous file with that name. If you change the first option to Y, however, the output command will add the records at the end of the file.

If you want the output to go into another Softfile database, use the record separator string "))" to mark the end of each record. Softfile's Import command uses this separator string to identify the end of each record when it reads a file into Softfile. (Also make sure the "Print record numbers and dates" option is N.) If the records you output are not to be read into Softfile again, you'll probably want to change the "Print record separator" option from Y to N, in order to eliminate the record separator string.

To get Softfile to use a record for its disk output options, first get the options record on the screen and then give the command Set, Global, Output options, Disk.

Notice the main difference between "printer" output and "disk" output: "printer" output is separated into pages and "disk" output is not. If you want your output paginated but sent to disk, use Output, ..., Printer, but first change the options record for direct output to a named disk file. Put the disk file name where it says "Device for direct output".

If you want several sets of options, say for printer output to different printers, you can use a separate record for each set. (See the "Cut and Paste" section to learn how to copy the options to another record.)` For convenience, they could all be attached records. Then, before you use the Output command, get the current set of options on the screen with Get, Output options, Printer, move to a different options record with RETURN or ., and use Set, Global, Output options, Disk to tell Softfile to use the new options.

Record Numbers

To find out the record number of the record on the screen, press = (the equals sign). You will see quite a bit of information on the screen, including the record number, form number, and dates. Press SPACE BAR to hide this information again.

The record number is sometimes a convenient way to identify a record. If you print records with their record numbers, you can get the record on the screen for editing with the command Get, Record number. Then enter the record number and press RETURN.

Links

Links between records are created with the command Set, Link. First, get on the screen the record you want the link to go to, the target record. Give the command Set, Target. Next, get on the screen the record which will link to the target. Give the Set, Link command and specify the number of the link. For example, the command

sets link 3 of the record on the screen to point to the target record.

From now on, whenever this record is on the screen, you can press 3 and the target record will appear. The record itself should have some explanation of the links and what they point to.

Any time you give the command Set, Link you will see the existing links along the bottom of the screen. The format looks like this:

1>0  2>0  3>59  4>0  5>0  6>0  7>876  8>0  9>0

This line shows the nine possible links and their current values. A zero means the link does not exist. In this example, link 3 goes to record 59 and link 7 goes to record 876. If you only want to look at the links and you do not wish to change them, just press SPACE BAR.

A link is easily deleted: Delete, Link, n deletes a link, where n is 1 through 9. For instance,

deletes link 3 from the current record. The bottom line will show the deleted link set to zero.

Links always point from the current record to other records. They are like one-way streets: they take you to another record, but you cannot come back again on the same link. However, you can retrace your steps with the BACKSPACE command. Softfile keeps a list of the last few screens you have looked at, and each time you press the BACKSPACE key, you go back through this list. So you can follow a link, and if you decide you do not want to pursue that path, BACKSPACE returns you to where you were. The command Get, Back is equivalent to BACKSPACE.

Note that the BACKSPACE key performs two functions. When the cursor is on the input line, waiting for a command, BACKSPACE goes back to the last record you saw before the current one. However, when the cursor is in the text area, BACKSPACE moves the cursor to the left.

Forms

Notice that the descriptions are preceded with an underline character, so that the words in the descriptions will not be indexed by Softfile. Although the options records have descriptions after the brackets, a more common layout is like this:

_First Name: [            ]  _Last Name: [                ]

Softfile will stop indexing at the underline, begin again at the left bracket, stop at the second underline, and begin again at the second left bracket. In short, only text between the brackets will be indexed in this example. When the form is blank, as it is here, nothing on this line will be indexed.

Once you have created a form, you can make it available to Softfile so that the New and Attach commands can write the form on a newly-created record. In order to do this, you must make a record called a form list. The form list is a list of up to 9 forms which serves two purposes. First, it tells Softfile the record numbers of 9 forms, so it can find them when you want to use them. Second, the commands New, List and Attach, List display the form list itself on the screen to remind you of the available forms and their numbers. To create a new record with form 6, for example, the command is New, 6 or Attach, 6.

Here is a sample form list:

LIST OF FORMS

1.  TELEPHONE CONVERSATION
2.  VENDOR INFORMATION
3.  CUSTOMER INFORMATION
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.

This record shows a list of the available forms (only three here), each one with a number. You must create a link from this record to each of the three forms.

A convenient way to create several links from one record is to Mark all the records involved. In this example, mark the form list first and then the three forms. Do View, Marked records and you should see the form list. The top line will say "4 marked". Proceed with these steps:

1. Press RETURN to get the "Telephone Conversation" form on the screen and do Set, Target.
2. Get the form list back on the screen with the command Get, 1st and do Set, Link, 1 to create the first link.
3. Press RETURN twice to get the second form, "Vendor Information", on the screen and do Set, Target.
4. Do Get, 1st again and then Set, Link, 2.
5. Get the last form on the screen with Get, Last and do Set, Target.
6. Do Get, 1st and then Set, Link, 3.
7. You have now created the three links, one to each form. Give the command Set, Form, List and Softfile reads the links to find out where the forms are.
8. Remove the marks with Unmark, All records, Yes.

Forms can have links, just like any other record. For instance, you might want all your customer information forms to have a link to an index screen. You can put a link to the index screen on the Customer Information form itself. Every time you use that form with the New or Attach command, the new record will also have the link.

Thus far we have discussed a single form list, which can only have links to 9 forms. However, you are not really limited to 9 forms in your entire database. You can have several form lists, each linked to 9 forms. If the form lists are attached in a chain, it is easy to page through them with RETURN and . to select the one you need. Then do Set, Form, List to "activate" that list, after which New and Attach will use the forms on that list.

There is one final wrinkle to Softfile forms. Every Softfile record can have a form number between 1 and 9999. These are arbitrary identification numbers which you may select in any way you wish. The form number indicates which form was used to create the record (or 0 if you started with a blank screen).

For instance, suppose you want to make the Customer Information form be number 100. Get the form on the screen, then do Set, Form, Number, 100. Remember to press RETURN after you type 100. Now every time a record is created using this form, the new record will also have form number 100. All the Customer Information forms, and the blank form itself, will have a form number of 100.

Softfile lets you select all the forms with a specified form number, so you can look through them or perhaps output them to another program. The command Find, Form, 100 will read your entire database and select the records which have a form number of 100.

Cut and Paste

You may then either blank the "cut" area or leave it as is. In fact, the quickest way to blank out a portion of a record is to "cut it out" and specify Y for yes to blank the area. You do not need to ever "paste" it anywhere. In any case, the area you cut out is stored by Softfile until you cut out something else or leave the program.

Once you have cut out part of a record, you can "paste" it onto the same or a different record. The Paste command only needs to know the upper-left corner of the rectangle, because the size of the rectangle was determined when you cut it out. Any existing text is replaced by the pasted rectangle.

You can repeat the Paste command any number of times to paste the same information onto different parts of a record or onto many different records. If you specify a location which places part of the pasted text off the screen (on the bottom or right edges), Softfile ignores that portion.

The command Cut, All copies the record on the screen. When you next do a Paste command, you are asked if you want to replace the entire record currently on the screen. Press Y to do so. Cut, All can be used to move or copy a record, using the following steps:

1. Get the record to be moved or copied on the screen and do Cut, All.
2. Mark the record if you want to delete it later.
3. Create a blank record with New, RETURN or Attach, RETURN. Press ESC ESC to store this blank record.
4. Use Paste, Yes to paste the record onto the new blank record. You have now copied the record to its new location.
5. If you want to delete the old copy of the record, go back to it with View, Marked records. When you have the proper record on the screen, do Delete, This record, Yes.

Searching for Dates

The reminder date is the only one you can change at any time, with the command Set, Reminder date, MM/DD/YY. You type the month, day, and year, separated by slash characters (/), where we have shown MM/DD/YY. The month and day can be one or two digits. The year can be two digits (88 for 1988) or four digits (1990, 2010). If the year is two digits, 30 through 99 are assumed to be 1930 through 1999, and 00 through 29 are assumed to be 2000 through 2029. For example,

sets the reminder date to August 1, 1989, but

sets the reminder date to December 31, 2002.

Softfile can read through all the records in your database and select only those which have specified dates. For example, the command

will select records with a modification date after June 1, 1988. You can move through the selected records with RETURN and ..

The Find, Date command can look at any of the three dates stored for each record (Created, Modified, or Reminder). It can choose records Before a date, After a date, within a Range of dates, or within a particular Month.

These two commands are equivalent:

Softfile is supplied with a program named remind, which can be used to select records whose reminder dates are the same as or prior to the current date. See the appendix "Setting Up Automatic Reminders" for details.

Compressing and Enlarging the Database

The best approach is to have your computer compress the database automatically. All UNIX systems have a program called "cron" which allows other programs to be run at scheduled times. Windows 98 has a Task Scheduler which performs the same function.

You may want to run the program "softpack", supplied with Softfile, once a week when the computer is idle.

The Softfile Utilities program has a Compress command to reclaim wasted space. You can use it if your system has not been set up to compress your database automatically. As discussed below, the Compress command also has one option which may be helpful in unusual circumstances. Most users can skip the remainder of this section.

To run the Utilities, run the command sfutil.

WARNING: Do not run sfutil from within Softfile itself (that is, with the ! command).

Wait while the database is compressed. When you see the message ...Press SPACE BAR to proceed, press SPACE BAR to get the menu. Press Q for "Quit" and Y for "Yes" to leave the Utilities program.

The question about the "maximum number of records allowed" in the database requires some explanation. The Softfile database normally expands as necessary to accept your data. In certain circumstances, however, you may want to prevent this automatic expansion.

Softfile assigns each record a number, starting at 1. If you create 1,000 records, they will have record numbers from 1 to 1,000. If you delete records, Softfile notes that the corresponding record number is no longer in use. Normally, however, it does not re-use the record numbers of deleted records.

There can be a problem with this scheme. The size of one of Softfile's indexes, stored on the disk, is related to the highest record number assigned by Softfile. If you get to record number 10,000, this index needs room for 10,000 records even though you may have deleted 5,000 of them. This wastes some disk space (although it will usually be a small fraction of the total size of your database).

You can force Softfile to re-use the record numbers of deleted records by specifying a maximum record number when you compress the database. If you specify 10,000 as a maximum, Softfile will not assign record number 10,001 to the next new record after record 10,000. Instead, Softfile will re-use the record number of a deleted record.

Softfile will continue to re-use record numbers until no more are available, at which time a message will tell you that Softfile has no room for more records. Then you must "compress" the database and specify a larger maximum record number. In this special case the Compress command, which generally makes the database smaller, can "enlarge" the database by allowing higher record numbers.

You should only force Softfile to re-use record numbers if you have a fairly constant number of records, but you make many entries and many deletions. For example, if you add 1,000 records a week and also delete 1,000 records a week, with an average of 5,000 records in the database at any given time, you might set the maximum to 10,000 records. You would also want to compress the database often, to remove the space wasted by the deleted records.

However, that would not be a typical use of Softfile. More commonly, the database grows steadily and few records are deleted. In that case, you never want Softfile to reach its maximum record number.

How high can the record number go? The limit built in to Softfile is 999,999 records. Suppose you entered 200 records a day, 365 days a year, for 10 years. That would "only" be 730,000 records.

Now back to our original question: what should you enter for the maximum record number? Normally you should press 0 and RETURN. Softfile then chooses a maximum equal to twice the highest current record number or 10,000, whichever is greater.

However, if you wish, you can enter any number up to 999999 (without commas) and press RETURN, in order to limit the size of the database. Your number is ignored if Softfile has already assigned a higher record number.