On 1/3/00, Jodi Hckey <TunerJeff@aol.com rote: <<Our database program(MSWorks) recognizes tabs as a signal to put what follows into the next field. I'm not a computer expert, but I think th= is will work in other database programs. I haven't included ground mail addresses or phone numbers in this database, but the same rules would apply= .. I have no idea how much time this method takes, I haven't ever kept track, but it doesn't seem to take very long. >> On 8/6/96, John Musselwhite <musselj@cadvision.com> rote: <<Your way may be faster, but it's nice to know these tricks of the=20 software. Anybody else discover other methods?>> Yes... spend a few minutes writing a few lines of BASIC code that reads the list, separates it, and then write it out in a comma delineated file and then load it into your DBase or spreadsheet and sort it there. Of course, if you don't know BASIC, then it's irrelevant unless you can fin= d someone to write it for you. B-})>> On 8/6/96, McNeilTom@aol.com rote: <<Thanks to Tom Seay for a neat description of the solution to=20 alphabetizing the Pianotech list. I hadn't done this sort of job in many= =20 months and was reluctant to try to verbalize it! >> Real interesting to go back over three months worth of saved email, now=20 loaded into my own data base, and turn up this discus sion of how to=20 convert piantech's subscriber list into a sortable dierctory. Up here,=20 I'm currently stuck with a "senior mac" (system 6.0.8). Lacking system 7,= =20 I'm shut out of all the popular mail handlers (Eudora, Claris Emailer,=20 etc.), and resorted to my favorite data base and its strong macro=20 language. After a few nights' work, I had a template which would parse=20 the complete text block (header and message) pasted to one field, for the= =20 usual info (from, date, subject, reply to, message), regardless of how=20 many lines the header block had and where in those lines each info lay.=20 (My previous attempt required a separate macro for each format of header=20 block.) The macro can also pick up the blank line between header and=20 message regardless of the number of lines, and it will also take=20 "subject" info to a separate field <<thread>> in which the subjects are=20 stripped of "Re:"s. Top that off with a reply window including all the=20 received messages in that thread, which has a button to carry quotes from= =20 the messages down to the reply (and adding an attribution line complied=20 from the "from" and "date" fields), as well as formatting a tag line from= =20 an accompaning file as a finishing touch This little cuisinart does its work on batches of email, running a loop=20 construction, and the average cost per record is 2K. (You know, some of=20 you folks are really long-winded..not me of course). (Look up "variable" in= =20 the index of your db's manual: if it says "see=20 'unpredictable','inconstant", you've got a weak database.) Bear in mind that I didn't do this for mental health. Seeing my imminent=20 exile from AOL (mac v2.5 was the last one to support sys6, they're up to=20 2.7, now), I hopped over to a shell account with the local internet=20 provider. Believe me, I'm much happier doing email out of my own db file=20 than in unix terminal emulation. Bill Ballard RPT NH Chapter =D2I gotta go ta woik....=D3 Ian Shoales, Duck=D5s Breath M. Theater
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