Re: Using XyWrite as an address book

[Harry Binswanger hb@xxxxxxxx]

Do you have some need for sorting? Why not leave it as
searchable free-form. That's what I do. Otherwise, what occurs to me is a
semi-manual process:

Go through the file and wherever a name and address begins, mark it with
some special character, such as this way:

!John & Jane Doe
111 Montmorency Court
Bowen's Hall
01833 566 2980

Make sure the block always ends with two carriage-returns. Then I can
write you a simple XPL program to DeFine those blocks and CoPy them to a
new file. From there, if you want further sorting, do a CI (change
invisible) to replace double carriage-returns with something
(temporarily), say the carat character and then another CI to change
single carriage returns with tabs, then change the carat character to a
single carriage return and you've got a file sortable by first name. A
similar process of marking could make a file sortable by last
name.



>   What about using FISH /or/
> FISHOUT (same thing) from the U2 file?
>   You will not even need to structure the data.  It will
> produce all
>   the content that meets your criterion, and then all you do is
> cycle
>   through it.  If the criterion is a city name, then that may
> produce
>   a whole lot of content, but if it's a proper name, then you
> likely
>   will hit it immediately, unless it's a name like "SMITH"
> and there
>   a number of SMITHs in the database.
>
>   M. W. Poirier
>
> -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
> On Thu, 10 May 2012, Bill Troop wrote:
>
> > I have been using a plain text file
> > in XyWrite as my preferred address book for some time, because it is
> > quicker to search than any known alternative. My problem is that it is
> > unstructured, and therefore unsortable.
> >
> > (That is, the file is just a list something like
> >
> > John & Jane Doe
> > 111 Montmorency Court
> > Bowen's Hall
> > 01833 566 2980
> >
> > etc etc)
> >
> >
> > Does anyone have any suggestion for structuring the data so that I could
> > at least sort by last name? I had thought of trying to do something with
> > XyWrite tables, but at the moment, I can't access the menus! I think they
> > used to come up by pressing both Alt keys, but nothing seems to bring
> > them up now. Any suggestions either for address book or for at least
> > being able to access the menus would be most gratefully received.