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Windows Documents

Over a period of time you may have accumulated handouts and other documents that have been formatted for Windows applications such as Microsoft Word e.g. Lifelearn Handouts etc. or you have various images and pictures e.g directions to the practice etc. While these could be converted to text documents much of the formatting would be lost. You can edit and print these directly from within Premvet 5.

These are NOT limited to documents generated via MICROSOFT Windows, this also convers X-Windows applications and any documents that have utilities to print directly from the Unix command line.

Chapter Contents:

  • Accessing a Windows Document
  • Setting up Windows Folders (Anita)
  • Setting up Documents (General)
  • Using Windows to generate Mailshots
  • Lifelearn
  • Creating a merge document

    • Note: The system will automatically detect if you are using Anita as a terminal emulator and offer you different options. This allows for processing Microsoft Windows documents. Users of the console, wyse terminals etc. can still use the option for non-microsoft applications.

    Accessing a Windows Document

    Use the option Windows on the Operation Consent Prompt Line, or from the Text Utilities -> Windows menu option. The system will display the top level menu (these are setup by your practice manager). Select as required till you locate the document you want and press return. Pressing <ESC> on any of the selection boxes will return you to the prompt line.

    The prompt (will only appear if you are using Anita) :

    Look_at Print Quit will appear.

    Look_at - This will start up the appropriate Windows application and from there you can edit/update as required.

    Print - This will automatically print the document on your current Windows default printer if the emulator supports it, otherwise this will work like the 'Look_at' option above.

    Quit - Returns you to the prompt line.

    Note: If the document you are accessing contains ' Merge Fields' you can include data from Premvet 5. If you access the document from the Text Utilities menu then NO animal specific data will be available. This means:

    Setting up Windows Folders

    In this section we will explain how to setup the system to allow Microsoft Windows documents to be accessed. For this you must be using Anita as a terminal emulator.

    You will need to have the Windows link up and running first (this is a one-off job). Then you should create some folders under the Premvet Directory (folder) to store your files, we suggest the text folder as a starting point.

    For example, we shall look at installing:

  • Lifelearn Handouts (Canine and Feline)
  • Lifelearn Practice Management Forms
  • Directions to the Practice
  • Word documents for mail merging

    We recommend a separate folder for each, so in our example, this will give us 5 folders as per:

    text/life/canine
    text/life/feline
    text/pmf
    text/maps
    text/merge
     The 'top' lever folders (as above) MUST NOT contain any spaces, folders below these can if required.

    Create a text file in the text folder on the Unix host called windows.idx containing the top level folder names and a brief description e.g. 

    text/life/feline   Feline Handouts
text/life/canine   Canine Handouts
text/pmf           Practice Management Handouts
text/maps          Practice Instructions
text/merge         Mailmerge Documents
    This is the first menu your users will see and is the only setup required for Premvet to access Windows documents.

    Now copy the documents (and folders) over to the Unix system (use the mouse to drag and drop). You can have additional folders under the top lever ones, for example, the Practice Management Forms are sub-divided into five sub-folders e.g. 

    text/pmf/
    Client Surveys/
    Consent and Release Forms/
    Marketing Strategy Forms/
    Patient Care Worksheets/
    Personnel Forms/
    When the user selects 'Practice Management Forms' the next box will contain the 5 sub-folders - they select the one required and they can select from the files e.g. 

    text/pmf/
    Personnel Forms/
       Application for Employment.doc
       Leaving Interview.doc
       Lifelong Learning Strategy.doc
       New Employee Interview.doc
       Performance Appraisal.doc
       Performance Evaluation.doc
       Practice Organisation Chart.doc
       Probationary Period.doc
       Reference Worksheet.doc
       Staff Survey.doc

    We do NOT supply any of the Lifelearn handouts or documents with the system, we can arrange to get them for you, or you can contact Lifelearn at Lifelearn@btinternet.com for details.

    Repeat the procedure until you have populated the folders. There is no need to create any index documents - just use the Microsoft long filenames (limit of 60 characters). If there is a document there it will appear in the selection box.

    You can have ANY type of document your Windows PC recognises e.g JPEG images, GIF images, Audio tracks, Video clips etc. The system will automatically use whatever program is suitable for viewing them.

    Setting up Other Windows Documents

    The basic procedure is very similar to the above section with a couple of differences:

    The 'index' file should be called filter.idx and this will be the 'top level' entry point if you are NOT using Anita.

    You will need to specify in params.txt how to print the different files you are using. Two of the common 'standards' are Postscript and PDF. Add an entry to params.txt for each type as per:

    Print_FileType.ext = print command Where ext is replaced with the file extension you want e.g. Print_FileType.ps = gsp The above line will print any postscript file (extension .ps) via the filter gsp.

    Two other optional configuration option are available:

    %s Will be replaced with the filename you selected
    %% Will be replaced with your default printer

    The print command can be a script or the full command line. e.g. to print PDF and Postscript you can use the gs filter (available on your skunkware cd) as per:

    Print_FileType.ps = gs -q -sDEVICE=ljet4 -dNOPAUSE -sOutputFile=- %s -c quit | lp -oraw -s

    Note: The command must be specified as one line.

    This is the only check within premvet 5 - does a Print_FileType entry exist or not, this allows you to add any supported file type to your lists without having to change the software. If you can print from the command line - you can print from this option. If you are running under X then you have access to wider range of programs.

    Using Windows to generate Mailshots

    The procedure for setting these up is very simple, follow the same procedure for Creating a document for merging and use as the Data Source the name of the CSV file created by Premvet 5 for that option.

    Save the document to the folder you have allocated for this, use the Windows long filename option to give it a meaningful name e.g.

    Recall Mail Merge.doc or
    Bad Debt Letter.doc etc.

    The options will appear automatically as per above.

    Lifelearn

    As explained in the specific Lifelearn Handout section you can access the handouts from the Operation prompt line. However, the handouts accessed are 'text based', that is the original Word document has been converted to text, in the process some of the formatting will have been lost. If there are any specific handouts you want to make available as Word documents there are a couple of ways to do this:

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