How To 'Organise' Your Definition Files.

Once you have discovered how useful .def files are (they're usually stored in /u/vetdata/text) you may find that there are so many they become hard to manage. Tom's Definition file Index sorts this nicely.

Decide how you would like to categorise your .def files, eg I have

LABELS
def files that print labels for xrays, labels for my blood tubes, labels for laboratory submission etc
LETTERS/FORMS
def files that print letters with the clients details on, letters replying to job requests etc
OPERATIONS
def files which print post op instructions eg one for post care for dentals, one for spays, one for abscesses etc
EXPORT
def files which print various export forms
INFORMATION HANDOUTS
this could be enormous eg information re diabetes, renal failure, CHF etc etc
Press f6 to get into shell
Move to the correct directory ( cd /u/vetdata/text)
(check you're in the right place by looking for your .def files - enter lc *.def)
Use your editor (vi if you're a masochist, ste if you're a wimp like me)
Create a file called def.idx (or open it if it's already there) and enter the categories in this format:-
```
filename.idx    Description
```
Mine looks something like this:
```
e               PRESS return, then E to exit
label.idx       Labels
lett.idx        Letters/forms
op.idx          Operations
export.idx      Export
info.idx        Information handouts
```
(that first line is not absolutely necessary but it seems to help staff)
Then you need to create those very category files (eg I would need to create 5 files;- label.idx, lett.idx, op.idx, export.idx, info.idx) and for each one of them, put in your .def files.
eg for op.idx ..
```
def.idx         RETURN to main index
dental.def      Post op sheet - dental
spay.def        Post op sheet - spay
absc.def        Post op sheet - cat abscesses
inp.def         In patient sheet
```
In putting def.idx as the first line this enables you to 'go back' to the main category index. If you found that one category was becoming too large you could sub-divide this into further sub-categories. I think that if you should have a maximum of about 12 files to look at otherwise it looks unwieldy.
(All this is actually in release notes read219f but as I have certainly found reading the recent How to... emails very useful I hope this helps somebody)

Submitted on Feb 10th 2001 by

Colin Baguley (Baguley, Boff & Freel : Horwich, Bolton, Lancs)   
colin@horwich.bdsl.com

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How To 'Organise' Your Definition Files.