Exporting an AviSys Columnar Report to WordPerfect

For Species Seen, Species Not Seen and Checklist Reports

These instructions are for WordPerfect 8. They can easily be applied to other versions of WordPerfect, although some menu items may be different. The concepts can be applied to any word processor.

Print this page to use as you work.

• Set up the AviSys report (Species Seen, Species Not Seen, or Checklist) in the Report Criteria dialog.
• Click Run.
• At the Print Options dialog, select Family Names and Latin Names as you wish. The other selections here will have no effect on the output.
• Click Text File.
• At the Save as dialog, name the file with a .TXT extension. Remember the name and the folder where it is saved. Click OK.
• A single stream of bird names (with optional family and Latin names) is written to the file.
• Start WordPerfect 8. You should be placed in a blank document -- or select File, New... and select WordPerfect Document.
• If the margins are too wide, restricting the amount of information you can get on a page, select File and Page Setup... to change the margins. Reducing the left and right margins will increase the space within the columns, possibly allowing you to add an additional column with the same readability. Unfortunately, WordPerfect has problems changing margins and applying those changes to column settings after the columns have already been created (see below), so you will need to do some experimenting. Generally, the 1" column default is nice for correspondence, but probably too wide for reports. Try .3" or .4".
• Type any general header you want, and then use the Enter key to place a couple blank lines under it.
• Select Format from the menu bar and then Columns... from the menu.
• At Number of columns: "spin" in the number of columns you need, generally 3 or 4 to start.
• At Space between:, "spin" in .1" -- generally, you don't need more for this application.
• At Type of columns: select Newspaper.
• You don't need to work with Column widths: because you set it globally for the page at Space between:, above.
• Later, you may want to experiment with the Border/Fill button.
• OK the Columns dialog.
• Leave the cursor where it is, in the first space of the first column.
• Select Insert, from the menu bar, and select Files... from the menu.
• At the Insert File dialog, set File type: to Text files (*.txt) or All files.
• Drop down the selector from the Look in: edit, and browse to find and select the folder where you saved your report output file.
• Your output file will be in the large panel. Double-click it.
• At the Convert File Format dialog select ASCII DOS Text, and OK it.
• Your report data will be "poured" into the columns you just created.
• If bird names wrap in columns, if things look too crowded, or too sparse, or if you don't have the font you want, start at the very beginning of the first entry in the first column, hold down the left mouse button, and "drag" the mouse down until you have blocked (highlighted) all the text. Release the left mouse button, leaving everything blocked.
• If you have successfully blocked the text, select Format from the menu bar, and select Font... At the font selection dialog, select the font, style and size you wish. You may have to experiment with various fonts and sizes to get the effect you want. Fortunately, the text remains blocked after a font selection, so if you don't like what you see, just select a new font, style or size until you get what you want. Also, you can change the column count by selecting Format and Columns... and "spinning" in the desired count.
• So, with everything blocked, you can make all kinds of changes, until you have it just right.
• For example, with 5 columns and Times New Roman 8 point font, you can get about 950 species on three pages -- 900 with Arial 8 point. Using a larger font requires fewer columns and more pages, but is more readable. Avoid "display" fonts, as their metrics cause poor formatting and readability.
• After you have things as you like them, you may want to triple-click the family names and click Bold and/or Italic on the tool bar to separate them visually.
• When you save the document, be sure to reset the File / Save dialog to where you keep your documents -- it's probably still pointing to where your AviSys data is.
• Consult your WordPerfect 8 documentation, or Help, for more information on such things as headers and footers, page numbering, two-sided printing, etc.

If you find errors in these procedures, or have suggestions for improvements, please let us know at <support@avisys.net>