APPLICATION NOTE #128 USING XYWRITE III PLUS WITH BLANKITY BLANK Rev. 01 Blankity BLANK, a product of Softstream Technologies, Inc., is a menu-driven, RAM-resident program that helps you create fill-in-the-blank forms and mail merge data records. This application note gives the information you need to use the data files created in Blankity BLANK with XyWrite's Mail Merge capability. INSTALLING BLANKITY BLANK FOR XYWRITE To install Blankity BLANK, follow the procedures supplied with the program. During the installation, you will be asked to create a series of subdirectories, some in the Blankity BLANK directory (\BB) and some in your word processor's directory. The word processor directory is represented as \WP in the Blankity BLANK documentation; be sure to substitute the name of the XyWrite subdirectory (usually \XY) whenever Blankity BLANK refers to \WP. The first time you load Blankity BLANK, the setup screen appears. Select the XyWrite III option for both XyWrite III and XyWrite III Plus. The word processor screen appears next, with the standard settings for XyWrite already filled in. If you renamed XyWrite's program when you installed it, enter the correct name. Otherwise, there are no changes to make to this screen. There are no option switches associated with XyWrite and the correct load time is 0 seconds. BLANKITY BLANK DIRECTORIES The following directories are necessary when working with Blankity BLANK. Some of them you create during installation; others are created when you use Blankity BLANK. \BB Ä Contains the Blankity BLANK program files. This directory is created during installation. \BB\QTNDIR Ä Contains the questionnaire files. This directory is created during installation. \XY\CLIENTS Ä Contains a directory for each client. This directory is created during installation. \XY\CLIENTS\client\answers Ä Contains the answer file to each questionnaire that has been filled out for the particular client. This directory is created by Blankity BLANK when the first questionnaire for the client is filled out. \XY\FORMS Ä Contains a directory (for each questionnaire) of the form files created with the word processor. In XyWrite, the form files are the mail merge document files. This directory is created during installation. \XY\FORMS\questions\form Ä Contains the document files to be used in conjunction with the answers in the \XY\CLIENTS\answers files. This directory is created by Blankity BLANK when the questionnaire is created. LOADING BLANKITY BLANK As with any other memory-resident program, you must load Blankity BLANK before you load XyWrite. If you are using XyWrite III, you must also run XYKBD (see Note #2). USING XYWRITE AND BLANKITY BLANK Blankity BLANK uses questionnaire files that contain up to 1000 numbered questions. The answers to these questions are stored in answer files. There is a separate answer file for each person (or client) for whom you complete a questionnaire. You can answer multiple questionnaires for each client. You can use the Blankity BLANK files as data files with XyWrite's Mail Merge feature. This is especially useful if you have a lot of information about a client that might be mixed and matched into several documents. To merge the files created with XyWrite and Blankity BLANK: 1. Create the questionnaire using Blankity BLANK, according to the instructions in the Blankity BLANK documentation. 2. Still using Blankity BLANK, complete the questionnaire for each client. Answers can be up to 213 characters long including punctuation, but cannot have carriage returns. You can skip a question without damaging the output or causing the XyWrite Mail Merge to fail. 3. Exit Blankity BLANK and load XyWrite. You don't need to change directories to load XyWrite. At the DOS prompt in the \BB directory: Type: editor 4. In XyWrite, create the main file as described in Chapter 5 of the XyWrite Reference Guide. This is the file that contains the text that is common to all finished versions, along with PF (Put Field) commands that indicate where data is to be inserted. Be sure the PF commands reference the number of the appropriate question in the questionnaire. (If the answer you want is a math calculation, reference the number of the question that actually calculates the value.) The main file must be in the subdirectory associated with the questionnaire. For example, if the questionnaire is named SALES, create the main file in the subdirectory \XY\FORMS\SALES. 5. Exit XyWrite and load Blankity BLANK. 6. Using Blankity BLANK, merge the information. At the Merge Menu, fill in the name of the client, the name of the questionnaire, and the name of the form file (the main file created in step 4). Result: Blankity BLANK enters XyWrite, and does a type to screen of the merge. Blankity BLANK processes only one record (or client) at a time. 7. Send the merged document to the printer by changing the command on the command line from TYPES to TYPE. Leave the rest of the command line alone. Move the cursor to the "S" in TYPES. Press: Del Press: 8. To process the next client's data, return to the Merge Menu in Blankity BLANK. Type: F5quit Note #1 Field and Record Separators. Although XyWrite lets you customize field and record separators, Blankity BLANK requires that you use the default values: a single carriage return for the field separator, and two carriage returns for the record separator. Note #2 XyWrite III Users. In order to use Blankity BLANK with XyWrite III, you must first run the separate program XYKBD.COM. This program, which is on your XyWrite III Word Processing Diskette, allows XyWrite to share the keyboard interrupts with other RAM resident programs. It does not limit your ability to remap or use special XyWrite keyboard files. To use XYKBD: 1. Copy XYKBD.COM into the root directory of your hard disk or onto your working diskette. 2. Prior to loading either Blankity BLANK or XyWrite, at the DOS prompt: Type: xykbd You may want to add this command to your AUTOEXEC.BAT file.