patth@dasys1.UUCP (Patt Haring) (09/03/87)
APPLEWORKS REPORT
MultiColumn Formatting
by
Charles Rubin
This month's 'Feature Report' takes you beyond the formatting
limitations of the word-processing module, and the 'Short Report'
introduces an encyclopedia program called Fact Works.'
All the commotion going on about desktop publishing these
days can leave users of the AppleWorks word-processing module
aching for some extra formatting power. After you have seen all
those elegant multicolumn reports and newsletters featured in
articles about desktop publishing, the single-column format of
AppleWorks can look a little boring.
Although AppleWorks alone won't give you the graphics
manipulation or headline-formatting capabilities of a publishing
program such as Springboard Software's The Newsroom, you can use
AppleWorks' data-interchange facilities to reformat
word-processing text into multiple columns for simple newsletter
formats. The procedure involved entering and editing text in
the word-processing module and then transferring it to the
spreadsheet module via the database module. The row/column
layout of a spreadsheet is ideally suited to multicolumn
formatting and printing.
Finalizing and Fitting Copy
The first step in preparing any document is to finalize the
contents. Enter and edit your text until you are completely
happy with it and consider formatting only when you have laid
your editing urge to rest. This preliminary step is
particularly important with text destined for a multicolumn
format, since you have only limited editing abilities once
you've transferred your text to the spreadsheet module. The
only text you don't have to worry about at this stage is the
newsletter's banner, or title and publication information -
you'll enter it once the text is in a spreadsheet file. When
working in the word-processing module, be sure you're using the
10CI printer option for pitch, so you have 10 characters to the
inch, which simplifies calculating column widths later.
After you're satisfied with the contents of your newsletter,
decide on a format. I'll use two columns as an example here,
but there's no reason why you can't have three or four columns
just as easily. You want two columns of the same width, with a
gutter of white space between them and equal margins on the left
and right sides of the page. Using 8 1/2 X 11-inch paper, we'll
plan to have two columns 3 inches wide, with 1-inch left and
right margins and a .5-inch gutter between the columns. The
math is ((2*3") + (2*1") + .5" = 8.5").
The margins and gutter in the final format will be taken
care of once you've moved the text to the spreadsheet module,
but while you're still using the word-processing module, you'll
want to format your text into one long column 3 inches wide, so
each line will contain a maximum of 30 characters. The default
line width in the word-processing module is 65 characters or 6.5
inches. (8.5 inches minus two 1-inch margins), so if you
increase the right margin to 4.5 inches, you'll be left with
lines 3 inches long (4.5 + 1=5.5; 8.5-5.5=3"). With the cursor
at the beginning of your text, use the printer-option command
for the right margin (RM) to enter a value of 4.5.
Once you've converted your text into one long
newsletter-size column, you can determine just how many columns
of text you will have. A typical spreadsheet page prints 55
lines without top and bottom margins. You'll probably want to
add .5-inch top and bottom margins, so, since you get 6 lines
per inch, your printing length per page will be 60 lines. If you
will be printing 60 lines per column and two columns per page,
each page will have 120 lines of text, minus a few lines for
headlines you add in the spreadsheet file. Move the cursor to
the bottom of the text in your word-processing file and look at
the line-number indicator to see how many lines of text you
have. Then add or subtract text until you have approximately
enough text to fill one, two, or more pages completely. You
can make small textual adjustments later in the spreadsheet file.
Moving Text to a Spreadsheet
Now, you're ready to move the text to a spreadsheet file.
The AppleWorks spreadsheet program can't read word-processing
files directly, and it can't read the ASCII files you can
produce with the word-processing program, but you can make a new
spreadsheet from a DIF file. The link becomes the database
program - it can read the ASCII file from the word-processing
module and create a DIF file that the spreadsheet program can
handle.
Save the word-processing file as an ASCII file on disk.
You'll have to specify the file's pathname when you use it to
make a database file, so give it a name that's easy to remember,
such as Text. Once you've done so, choose the option to create
a new database file from an ASCII file. AppleWorks will ask you
how many categories of information you want in the new file -
your answer will determine how many categories (or columns, in
multiple-record layout) the file will contain. Since you want
all of your word-processing text to appear in one long column,
specify one category. After you enter a name for the new file,
the word-processing text will appear in a database file, as in
figure 1.
In the database module , all you have to do is create a new
Tables report format and print the text to disk as a DIF file.
When you create the new Tables report, you'll notice that the
category containing the text is much too narrow to display all
the text. You know the text is not more than 30 characters
wide, so just use the open-apple/right arrow command to widen
the category until the Len indicator at the right side of the
category is greater than 30. Once it is, print the report to
disk as a DIF File, using a descriptive name such as Dif.
Now, you can choose the option to create a new spreadsheet
file from a DIF file.. Enter the pathname for the DIF file you
made from the database and type a name for the new spreadsheet
file, and your text will appear in Column A of a new spreadsheet,
as in figure 2.
Columns in the Spreadsheet
From here, it's a simple matter to format your text the
way you want. Remember, the spreadsheet is your newsletter's
format, so you must adjust the positions of subheads, the
newsletter title, and article titles here.
First, we'll widen the columns to the desired size.
Although the text you've transferred is squeezed into the
spreadsheet's default nine-character column width in column A,
you can widen the column with the Layout command to show
everything. As you widen the column, though, you'll need to
count characters to see exactly how wide the column is.
Your text is 30 characters wide, but you want a half-inch
gutter between the left and right columns. Since text or labels
in the spreadsheet are normally left-justified, the space between
the end of the text and the actual right edge of the left-hand
column. By making column A 5 characters wider than your text,
you'll have a half an inch of white space between the text in
column A and the text in column B. Therefore, you want column A
to be 35 characters wide. Once you've reformatted column A, use
the Layout command to widen column B until it is also 35
characters wide (the extra space at the right of this column ill
simply become part of the page's right margin).
Next, insert three rows at the top of the spreadsheet and
type the newsletter's banner - the title and publication-date
information - in column A. If your title and publication
information take up more than 35 characters, the label will
automatically extend into column B, but be sure not to exceed 70
characters, because the text must fit into columns A and B. If
you have more than one line of information in your newsletter's
banner, insert extra rows and enter the information . In the
line below the bottom of your banner text, type a quotation mark
to indicate a label, and then insert a dashed line or a row of
equal signs across both column A and column B to separate the
banner from the newsletter copy.
If your headline is more than 35 characters long, insert
another row and use two lines. Next, go through the text itself
an insert rows to add spacing around subheads and between
paragraphs, since all the blank spaces you started with in the
word-processing document disappeared when you saved the database
file in the DIF format.
Fitting Text into Column B
Now you're ready to move part of your text out of column A.
and into column B to create the two-column layout. How much of
the text do you move? It's easy to determine. In the
spreadsheet each row, or line of text you've transferred is
numbered. To determine the length of your columns, simply
subtract top and bottom margins from your page length. The
Printer Options screen in the spreadsheet module shows that
you're using 11-inch paper and are printing 6 lines to the
inch,so that you can print 66 lines on the page if you have no
top and bottom margins. If you set your top and bottom margins
for .5 inch each, you will have 60 printed lines on the page.
Let's use 60 lines as our number.
Since you will print 60 lines on the page, you know that
all text form row 61 down will print on the next page.
Therefore, you want to scroll down to row 61 in the spreadsheet
and move the appropriate amount of text from there into column
B. Figure 3 shows the column B text already in place. Notice
that the text in column B begins in cell B4, so it lines up with
the beginning of the text in column A. Since the column B text
begins in row 4 and runs to row 60, you know you need to copy 56
rows of text from column A.
Although you want to move the text, you can't use the
spreadsheet module's Move command because it moves entire rows of
data. You want to move cells from column A and place them in
column B, and the Move command won't let you select only column
B as a destination. Instead, you must use the Copy command.
Move the cursor to cell A61. Choose the Copy command and
the Within Worksheet option, and then move the cursor down to
the row 116 (to select 56 rows of text). Once you've selected
the text, press the Return key. Next, move the cursor to cell
B4 and press the Return key. A copy of your text from rows
61-115 in column A will now appear in column B, and the first
newsletter page is finished, as you see in figure 4.
Now, scroll down to row 61 in column A, which will be the
first row at the top of your second page. First, you must use
the Blank command to delete the text in cells A61-A116, since
this is the text you copied to column B on the first page of the
newsletter. You can then scroll down to row 117 and move the
appropriate amount of text up so it starts at cell A61. To make
sure you don't copy text on top of itself, you must copy the
next 60 rows of text form column A into column C, blank the
original text in column A, copy the text from column C to the
correct location in column A, and then blank the text
in column C to remove it. Let's say, for example, that you
column A text on page 2 is originally in cells A117 to A176.
Select that text and copy it to column C. Then, blank cells
A1176-A176. Select that text and copy it to column C. Then,
blank cells A117-176 and use the Blank command to erase them.
Next, copy the text from column C to cell A61 so it fills cells
A61-A120. Finally, use the Blank command to erase the text
from Column C.
After you've placed the column A text properly, you can
copy the column B text into its correct position. The process
continues as established until you've formatted all the pages
of your newsletter.
Touching Up and Printing
If you try this data-movement and column-formatting
technique once, you'll see how easy it is to format data into
columns quickly. You can use the spreadsheet module's Layout
command to center or right-justify subheads or headlines. You
can insert of delete rows to close up open space - if you do it
before you've placed one column of text beside another. You can
adjust columns of text up or down on the page by copying them
to another column and then back again. You can create more
columns or wider columns by adjusting the left and right margins
in the spreadsheet or changing the column widths. You can also
do some minor editing of the text, as long as you remember that
each line of text in each column is really a spreadsheet cell and
that the text won't wrap around to the next line if you exceed
the cell's boundaries.
If you want to add page numbers to the bottom of your
pages, just leave the bottom row (row 60 on page 1) blank and
type the numbers in manually in the bottom-row cell of column A
(A60 on page 1). Since you're typing a value, the number will
be right-justified and will appear at the edge of the column
near the center of the page.
When you're ready to print your newsletter, check the
spreadsheet module's Printer Options menu to make suer the Print
Header (PH) option is set to No; otherwise, your newsletter will
print out with a filename and page number at the top of each
page. You can also enter a special printing code to print the
newsletter in the Letter Quality mode or other enhanced formats.
Check for the appropriate code in your printer's manual and
then enter it as a special code in the spreadsheet file with
the SC printer option. You can even use a font program to print
with a custom font, as long as you experiment to see that the
size of the font you select is approximately the same as that
of the standard AppleWorks characters; otherwise, your columns
may be wider or narrower than you planned.
It doesn't give you the flexibility of The Newsroom or
other desktop-publishing programs, but this technique can help
you crank out a quick newsletter or dress up your AppleWorks
documents with multicolumn formats.
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Contributing Editor Charles Rubin is the author of AppleWorks
and Command Performance: AppleWorks, both from Microsoft Press.
He writes about computing for various publications.
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