NOTE: Check with your IT staff to see if this is allowed. This procedure will disable some security features that stop macro viruses in Microsoft Access.
If your IT staff says that you may not do this, you will need to allow macros after the security warning each time that you enter Access.
Step 1: Open Autodocs in Vista Access.
Step 2: With Office Vista, there is an office icon in the upper left corner of the screen. click on it. At the bottom of the Office Window,
click on the button that says "Access Options."
Step 3: A new window will open. On the left hand side, click on the button that says "Trust Center."
Step 4: On the right hand side of the Trust Center screen, click on the button that says "Trust Center Settings."
Step 5: A new window will open. On the left side, click on the button that says "Macro Settings."
Step 6: Select the radio button called "Enable all macros (not recommended)" and click "OK".
NOTE: If you cannot follow these procedures, when you get the security warning, click on "Enable content".
Access 2003 has a feature to prevent opening databases that have viruses in their macro code.
Unfortunately, the SuDoc sorting code in Autodocs looks suspicious, so when the feature is on,
Access warns you when you open Autodocs. If you turn the feature off for Autodocs, you turn it
off for all databases on that computer, so the ability to turn it off is often restricted.
The warning says:
How do you turn off the warning feature?
If you have an account to a computer that allows you to change the Windows Registry, then you can alter the settings to
stop warning you about unsafe code. To do so: 1. Click on "Tools" in the upper tool bar, 2. Click on "Macro", 3. Click on
"Security", and finally 4. Set Security to "Low." The danger is, of course, that if you open an Access database from
someone who has slipped a virus into the code, without this warning, you could wreck your computer. So your Tech
people may not let you change the security.
0.C. Windows Vista, General issues
In the Navigational Pane, there is one long list of objects. It starts with Tables, then follows them with Queries,
then Forms, then Reports, then Macros. If the Nav Pane says "All Tables" at the top, these objects will not be separated
by headings in the list. If you want to see all objects separated by headings, click on the dropdown arrow next to the
phrase "All Tables" and the select "Object Type" from the dropdown list.
0.D. If I have MS Access 2013, how do I import the shipping lists?
Explanation: Why the change? MS Access 2013 no longer supports the dBase III format
for importing data into Access tables, which is necessary for checking in materials
using the Autodocs application. The solution below works, but it adds extra steps to
the earlier procedures, which is regrettable.
I.A. What version of Access do I need?
Currently, you need at least MS Access 97 to run Autodocs. I have employed a number of
features only available in 97 and higher, so you will not be able to get either Autodocs
or SuperB to work in Access 2.X. You also need to have all of the
Access 97 Wizards loaded. (Sometimes, to save space, technicians
will load Access without its wizards. If you load Autodocs,
and then discover that you are getting error messages about wizards, do not worry. They
can be added to your current Access without having to rebuild your Autodocs database.
The system can be converted to Access 2000, 2002 and 2007. I have run my own tests on Access
2000, 2002, 2003 and 2007 and others have done so. If you run into problems converting to Access 2000
or higher, let me know at vleighton@winona.edu.
For Access 2003, see Section 0.A. above for the unsafe code warning.
For Access 2007, see Section 0.B. above for the unsafe code warning.
I.B. How do I start Autodocs in order to look at
the demo data?
Download the zip file and unzip it. Then open Autodocs14.mdb in Microsoft Access 97 or higher. (If in a
later version of Access, it will start by asking you if you want to convert. Say "yes". Then
you will have to save the converted database application to a new name. Go for it.)
Opening the Switchboard: Access 97 and 2000: Once the application is open, there should be a window with
tabs at the top for "Tables", "Queries", "Forms", etc. For Access 2003, the window has a lefthand column
with these same options, "Tables", "Queries", "Forms", etc. Click on the tab that says "Forms" to view the
window that lists all of the forms in the database. Then double click on Switchboard.
Opening the Swtichboard, Access 2007: For Access 2007, there is a feature called the Navigational Pane
on the lefthand side of the screen. See Section 0.C. above for a description of
how to adjust the Navigational Pane. Scroll down the Nav. Pane until you reach the Form Switchboard.
Then double click on Switchboard.
You might want to
enlarge the Switchboard form to fill the screen, so that the buttons on the following forms are all visible.
Then play around with the options, other than the menu that reinitializes the tables. You
can try checking in electronic shipping lists, updating and altering the item selection profile,
the list of items to send to cataloging, and other helper tables, and searching the shelflist.
Then print from a wordprocessor the file Autotutorial.rtf. Follow it to step through an
introduction to Autodocs.
I.C. What should I do before using the Autodocs system?
First, examine your check-in operation. List the categories of items that you handle. What
gets sent to a separate department, such as periodicals? Are some items put in a vertical
file, and given different labels? Are some items separately housed in another library or
department?
Next, compare your list to the following description of how Autodocs is designed, and
note what would need to be changed. Then read the relevant sections describing the
tables and how they are interconnected. Write down what you are changing and keep it in
a file. I plan to send out upgrades when I get around to it. If you load upgrades,
you may need to alter them in order to get them to work with your modified system.
If you are starting with Autodocs 1.2, no, do not use the initialization screens.
If you are starting with Autodocs 1.3 or have converted from 1.2 to 1.3, yes, use them.
The version 1.2 of the initializer does not give the Shelflist and the exceptions tables
information about what fields are required and what fields are the primary keys. If you
have already used the 1.2 initializer, see section III.C..
The options to initialize the Exceptions table and the Shelflist wipe the
exceptions tables and shelflist tables clean, ready for you to add the
exceptions and shelflist for your institution. I shipped Autodocs with
a subset of Winona State's exceptions and shelflist already in it for
demonstration purposes.
Then there is a initialize disable which destroys the ability to wipe out the tables that
is so that once you initialize the tables, you can prevent someone else who is playing
with your copy of Autodocs from deleting your shelflist. (Always a good idea.)
I.E.How do I create my ITEMPROFILE table of my depository's
selection profile? (updated 6/15/2012)
I.F. How do I create my SUPERCEDED table of items that we select that
supersede earlier editions?
First, why create the SUPERCEDED table? Isn't the table shipped with
Autodocs the complete List of Superseded Items from 2002? No, it is
not. It is a subset of the list filtered through your selection profile, so that
it doesn't have to be any larger than necessary. So the SUPERCEDED
table that is shipped as a demo with Autodocs is the part of the Superseded
list that is relevant to Winona State University, no your institution.
Note: SuperC's data comes from the 2002 List of Superseded Items
that Tom Tyler has created. Your depository may have local retention practices that
differ from the guidelines on the official list, so you will want to review your own
list and make changes to the SUPERCEDED table before using it.
The EXCEPTIONS table has preset flags for three cases: 1. where the item
gets sent to cataloging, 2. where the item gets sent to the periodicals department, and 3.
where the item gets stamped Reference, No Circulation. Those just happen to have been
the three classes of exceptions that I was dealing with at Winona State when I created
Autodocs. However, it can be used to signal the person checking in the material for any
special instructions connected to an item number or a sudoc stem
within an item number. See section 4 of the procedures guide included with this distribution
for more information.
The fields in EXCEPTIONS in Autodocs 1.4 and later are:
I.H. How do I set up my LABELCHANGES table for items that get a
different call number?
LABELCHANGES has fields for matching items in the checkin process to series for
which locations are different in the library. Once it matches to a new item, it will
automatically change the Location and Call Number fields in the check-in record to the
correct location and number for that series. The fields are:
I.I. And why is "LABELCHANGES" a very misleading name for that
table?
LABELCHANGES is a very misleading name, because it doesn't just change the labels.
It changes the fields for Location and Call number in the Checkin record, which
then goes both to the labels and then becomes the final shelflist record. So if you actually
catalog something in
Dewey or LC, and you do not add that series to LABELCHANGES, then your shelflist
will say that the item is in Government Documents when it isn't. See next answer.
In the FAQ for version 1.2, I said, "Here is an example of poor design that
crept into the early stages of Autodocs and is too hard to root out." However,
I have discovered that it is not at all poor design. Why did I think that it was
poor design? Because the EXCEPTIONS table is separated from the
LABELCHANGES table. The EXCEPTIONS table tells the person
processing the documents that there is an exception in processing for
that series, such as an exceptional location. But it doesn't go in and alter
the location on the label. Nevertheless, the location and call number on
the label are recorded in the Main Shelflist as the location and call number
of the document. That creates a problem. If you only have an EXCEPTIONS
record, the series changes location, but the shelflist record says that it is in
Documents.
This fact means that even if you check the box in the EXCEPTIONS
record to suppress the labels, if the document is sent to a different location,
you need to change the location and call number that would have gone on
the label. How do you do this? Use the LABELCHANGES table. It also
matches Item number and Sudoc stem, and then alters the location and
call number for the label and the shelflist. So for every item in the
EXCEPTIONS table that changes the location (say to the LC or
Dewey collection) and the call number (to an LC or Dewey call
number), you need one entry in EXCEPTIONS and another entry
for the same item in LABELCHANGES.
Now that we have started the Marcive project, I have used the
EXCEPTIONS table to signal which item numbers are cataloged
Marcive. In those Exceptions records, I have left the Sudoc number
blank, since any sudoc under that item number gets a Marcive record.
But for series that we already were treating exceptionally, an
EXCEPTION record with a sudoc stem interferes with an
EXCEPTION record with no Sudoc stem and causes unpredictable
behavior. So you have to roll all exceptions for a Marcive item number
into one Exceptions record.
Here is where the LABELCHANGES table becomes good design.
Because LABELCHANGES is separate, you can still use it to change
the locations and call numbers for specific series within an item number,
even if the whole item number is listed in Exceptions with a blank sudoc
stem because of Marcive cataloging. Whew. The LABELCHANGES
table turns out in the end to be good design, if you retrofit the Exceptions
records to handle blank sudoc stems.
If, on the other hand, you include sudoc stems in EXCEPTIONS records
that signal Marcive cataloging, then you do not need to eliminate your old
EXCEPTIONS records. If you do that, though, then every time there is a
new sudoc stem added to the item number, you have to add an
EXCEPTIONS record for it. Which is high maintenance. And the
whole point of Autodocs is to lower your routine efforts.
This will happen if your Autodocs loses some of its default settings. Converting from
Access 97 to later versions makes that happen.
For Access 97 to 2003: Click on "Tools" on the Menu bar, then click
on "Options," then click on the tab called "Edit/Find." Then deselect all of the notification
flags on the right hand side of the Edit options. Then hit "Okay." This will suppress those
messages.
For Access 2007: Click on the upper left corner Office Icon, then click
on "Access Options" at the bottom of that pane, then in the left menu click on "Advanced", which will
give a new frame on the left side of that pane. Look for the "Editing" section and its "Confirm" subheading,
then uncheck the confirm options for "Record Changes", "Document Deletions" and "Action Queries." Save your
changes, and the annoying messages should go away. (But watch out, if you delete records they will go
away without confirmation!)
II.A. What if I want to alter fields in tables, in order to do things
differently?
Altering the structure of any table (tables store the actual data, like the shelflist) is tricky
and a pain in the neck. The reason is because the queries that manipulate the data, the
forms that display the data, and the reports that print the data usually refer to the fields by
their names. So changing a name in a table (adding a field, dropping a field, changing the
purpose of the field) means that you have to find every other object (query, form, report)
in the database that handles those fields, and change them.
So plan ahead (or plan to fix things because you didn't plan ahead). Think of the different
things that you do to incoming documents, and ways that you use your shelflist. Then
decide what fields you need where, in order to accomplish that goal.
The most likely tables to alter are: Main shelflist and EXCEPTIONS, because those are the most customized
to the local operation.
To change Main Shelflist:
To change EXCEPTIONS table:
II.C. How do I change what fields are displayed in the results or on print
out reports?
Results are usually displayed within a form. For example, the results for the shelflist
general search for technical staff are displayed in the form called Shelflist Gen Results
Tech Full. You need to find the form where the button exists to generate the display or
print out, open that form in design mode, look at the properties of the button in question,
find out what macro or report or form that starts, close the form, open the display form or
report indicated by the button properties, and add or move fields accordingly.
III.A. What are the features of the Main Shelflist?
The most important feature of the Main Shelflist is that I established the Sudoc number as
the primary key field. What that means is that the Sudoc number must be unique in order
for the record to be added.
The strength of this feature is that if you accidentally check-in the same shipping list
twice, it will not load duplicate records. The bad part is that if GPO messes up and
assigns two different items the same Sudoc number, the second one is bounced out. See
Check-in Question D to diagnose what has caused an item record to fail to be added to
the shelflist.
Fields that are required in the table are: CLASSNO (Sudoc number), TITLE, ITEMNO,
LISTDATE, and FORMAT. If you try to save a record that is completely missing
anything from any of these fields (even a blank space counts as something), Access will
reject the record. Without these required fields, the general search form would not work
correctly.
The Fields are:
III.B. What should I do to periodically maintain Autodocs?
Access 1997 to 2003: To compact the database, on the top menu, click on Tools, then Database Utilities,
and then Compact Database.
Access 2007: Click on the Office Icon in the upper left corner, then click on
"Manage" and then click on "Compact and Repair Database.
On the "Search Shelflist Technical Staff" screen, there is a button for "Rebuild Sudoc sort
field in Shelflist." Press that and wait five minutes for large shelflists.
Autodocs uses a customized version of Stan Price's algorithm from SuDS (with his permission).
Stan's algorithm works by creating uniform sized chunks of characters. The alphabetic
substrings of the Sudoc number are preceded by a character that sorts before a number
does. The numeric substrings are filled in with leading zeros. The colon is the only piece
of punctuation that is not ignored by the algorithm. It is replaced by a block of
characters that sort prior to either numeric blocks or alphabetic blocks.
Stan made each block 15 characters long, and allowed 16 different substrings of letters and
numbers. I ran some tests on two years worth of Sudoc numbers at my depository, and found
that the longest substring was 9 characters, and that the highest number of alternating strings was
14. So in the Autodocs version, the blocks are 12 characters long and there can be 15 of them.
This makes for a sorting field of 180 characters, which takes a good bit of room in a shelflist record.
If a substring is over 12 characters, that substring will simply not be part of the
sorting string. So some Sudoc numbers may not be sorted correctly, however, the long
strings then to be at the end, things like ED 1.8: G 43/SERBOCROATIAN. So missing that
last string will not cause catastrophes. If there are more than fifteen blocks of
characters, things get uglier. The whole field for sorting ends up blank, and so the
record will be sorted at the beginning of any list sorted by sudoc. That will hopefully
be rare, and not cause great hardship.
The sorting field that my version produces does not mix directly with Stan's original sorting field. I
used different fill characters. He had reported that the characters he had chosen do not sort
properly in Access 2000. I tested it and that is correct. I altered the algorithm so that it does
sort properly in both Access 97 and 2000.
Does the algorithm sort Sudoc numbers correctly?
It does not put two digit years after years ending in 99. So "I 19.42/4:00-4001"
comes before "I 19.42/4:99-4001". But does any computer sort that correctly? Otherwise,
it is theoretically possible to have Sudoc numbers that do not sort correctly, but such numbers
rarely if ever come about in practice. For example, these two numbers would be transformed
into the same sort field:
III.E. Why do I get that annoying screen after every search of
the shelflist in technician's mode?
Short answer: because I couldn't fix my program. Long answer: if you have changed the Sudoc
number in the Main Shelflist, the field that allows sorting by Sudoc does not get rebuilt.
Because of that, the record will sort by the old number.
So after each Shelflist search, you get a warning that you should rebuild the sorting fields
for the entire Shelflist.
This rebuilding would be unnecessary if some Access Visual Basic hot shot fixed the parse
algorithm so that an individual record's parsed_usca field was updated after the CLASSNO field
was updated. I have included the defective Access form under the name "Defective Search
Results" for anyone who wants to take a crack at it.
It successfully updates the individual parsed_usca after the CLASSNO has been updated, but it
freezes Autodocs and forces you to reboot the computer after each update (not good).
Please let me know if you fix this problem.
IV.A. How do I check-in items?
See the separate file called procedures14.rtf for the procedures for check-in. You
can see a quick overview in section I.B. above.
IV.B. What if I just want to add an item to
the shelflist directly?
There are a couple of ways to add an item to the shelflist.
Method One: One method is to append the item to a shipping list that you are
already checking in (a shipping list of the same format of materials). This method
is safer than method two, but slower and less convenient. Begin to process the
shipping list by importing it. Then before
clicking the "Create Check-in List" button, click on the "Add to or Edit the Shipping
List" button located to the left of the main sequence.
Click on the "add a new record" button. It is important to include the correct item
number, as that number with the SuDoc number is used to perform operations with
exceptions and superseded lists. Fields that are required by the shelflist include: Sudoc
Number, Title, Item Number, List Date, and Format. (The program automatically fills in
the Format field). All of these fields are text fields, and "required" simply means that the
field is not allowed to be totally blank. So if there is no data for a required field, you
could put in the word "None." If a required field is null, the computer will not admit the
record, and you will have to start over.
Why is this method safer? Because the new item is run against the helper files that might
provide notes and detect older superseded versions of the item. But if you are not worried
about these issues, throw caution to the winds and use method two.
Method Two: Another place that one could add to the shelflist is to first
search for the item using the general shelflist form for staff (not the public search
form that does not allow updates). Click to search and retrieve the full records. (You will
want the Full record to see all of the options that you can add.) Click on the Arrow-Star
button at the bottom to get to a blank entry record.
Fill that in and click on the "Save this Record Now" button. If you want a label, just click
on the "Add to the Labels to Print" button. This method is faster than method one, but
you may miss important exceptions details.
IV.C. How do I handled claimed items received?
It depends on how you handle claims. See procedures14.doc for the two alternative ways of
dealing with claimed materials.
Basically, if you alter the Sudoc number in order to claim, then you just search the shelflist
for the claim record, and edit the SuDoc number. Just make sure that you rebuild the sorting
field afterward. If you deleted the it to be claimed, then you import the old shipping list
again and delete all of the other items except the claimed one.
IV.D. What if the list had an error that has been input into the
shelflist?
If you discover that there was an error on a list, you can correct the problem at each stage
of the check-in process. If you have followed steps #1, #2 and #3, and you spotted the
error in the Check-in form, you can do several things. If the error is with a field in one
record, but the error did not prevent the record from getting to the point of the check-in
form, then you can simply click in the box and delete the error and retype. If the error
was a faulty item number, and the item did not appear in the check-in form even though
you select it, then close the check-in form, and abort the check-in list (abort step #2).
Then click on the button to the left of the main column of the check-in process that says
"Add or Edit the Shipping List." See IV. B. above for details
about adding items.
Sometimes the date is wrong on all of the records, or the shipping list number is wrong. If
you already shelflisted the shipping list, and want to go back and change something, you
can go to the "Shelflist Operations for Staff" and click on "Search by shipping list number."
That will pull up all items with that list number in their record. You can then
edit the records directly from that results screen. Don't forget to change the label field
and then eventually rebuild the sudoc sorting field.
You could automate and make global changes, but that requires building a Access query,
which takes a lot of skill and effort.
If the table Main Shelflist has the Sudoc number as the primary key
(see section III.C.),
the system should prevent the same record from being shelflisted twice, because the
Sudoc number is a unique string. If when you shelflist the records you get an error that
some items were not shelflisted because of a primary key conflict, then one of the new
records had a sudoc identical to a previous record. Click on "Verify shipping list in the
Shelflist, or on the form "Shelflist Operations for Staff" search by shipping list number.
That search will pull up all items
with that list number in their record. You can then compare to the paper list in front of
you and find which ones failed. The act of shelflisting also deletes the check-in list and
the shipping list, so to begin the process again, you have to reimport the shipping list.
Then in this second go-round, edit the shipping list to change the offending sudoc
number. Be creative. If you can figure out the correct number, great. If not, you might
want to add /ITEM 2 to the end of the Sudoc number. That way, when the corrections are
issued, you can search under the Sudoc number to retrieve the item. Then follow the
remaining steps of the check-in process. This second time, when you shelflist the list, all
of the other records except the failed one will fail to be shelflisted, because their Sudocs
will not be unique (they are already in there).
The recommended way to add a shipping list that is not already electronic is to enter
the items at the end of another shipping list and then check the combined shipping list
into Autodocs; however, you can add them to the Shelflist directly if you are daring.
See IV. B. for instructions about adding
to the end of a shipping list.
The situation of the missing electronic copy of the shipping list is much more common
for the microfiche. In the microfiche case, our technician checks the paper list against the
shipment, does any claiming that needs to be done, and sends the items to the public
cabinet. Then she keeps the lists in a file and checks them every couple of months to see
if they have appeared. They usually do. Only after a long wait does she add the items to
the end of another shipping list.
If for some reason you want to download the shipping lists to a directory other than
c:\data\access, you can perform the following steps.
Changing the download/import directory
IV.H. What if I am retrospectively checking in records prior to the year
2000 shipping lists?
Uffa da, don't do that. Or if you do, remember that the list's date will not have the century.
So a date of Jan 1, 1998 will have 980101. When you go to search for records to weed from that
year, you just have to remember to search for year 98 rather than year 1998. I could build in
a check-in for old items, but someone would have to pay me.
Here is the scoop on the "Shelflist superseded SuDoc search form". Autodocs takes the stem
of your SuDoc number (usually up to the colon) and performs a search against the Main Shelflist
automatically. You do not have to manually enter the SuDoc number in to this form. This form is
the results form, which displays all records in the Main Shelflist with that stem.
An Example:
So let's say that you are checking in the record for ED 1.2:D 63/10/2001. Autodocs will see
that everything with the ED 1.2: stem gets superceded, so it searches for ED 1.2: and returns
the results. Not at the top of the results form that your original SuDoc number is shown in the
box called "New SuDoc Number." You then need to look through the results and see if you have an
earlier version of that document. If you find one, such as ED 1.2:D 63/10/999, you then click on
"Add this record to the Superceded List" (if you are building a list of superceded items to pull
from the shelves) and then click on "Delete this record from the shelflist" because you are
getting rid of that item. When you have either succeeded in finding an item to replace, or have
ascertained that there is no such item that needs replacing, you can click on "Quit this Form" and
go back to your checkin. After quitting the form, if you have changed a SuDoc number in the Main
Shelflist without deleting it, you need to rebuild the "Shelflist Sorting Field." There will be
a pop up window that asks you if you want to do that.
V.A. How does label making work?
Labels are made from a separate table. The table has to be created at the beginning of the
session (unless there is one from the previous session), and then with each shipping list,
information for labels is added to it. Then it is printed out and deleted at the end of the
session.
V.B. How do I change how the labels are laid out?
Go to the base level database window for Autodocs. Then click on the tab that
says Reports. Click on the report called Ship Labels. That is the report that prints the labels.
Click on the Design button to pull up the report in a design window. You can now change the text or
add a date function, delete a field or anything you want. Watch out, though! If
you add things that alter the exterior size of the report, the current type of labels will not hold
the label text properly. When done, click to close the design window and accept the changes.
V.C. What type of labels are used by Autodocs? How do I change how the labels are
laid out?
The current report for the labels uses Avery no. 5160. You might be tempted to use a different kind of label, but since
you will be going through boxes and boxes of these labels, it would probably be just as easy to use the default
report form and buy a new box of labels. However, if you really want to use a different type of label,
you can use the label report wizard to create another report for the labels that you
do have.
To do this, go to the base level database window for Autodocs. Then click on the tab that
says Reports. Click on the report called Ship Labels. Then click on the Design button.
Investigate each field and find out what form it comes from. Then close Ship Labels.
Right click on Ship Labels, and rename it something.
Then find out from your label company what the Avery number equivalent is to their
labels. Then click on New, and use the label wizard to create a new report that performs
the functions that you want equivalent to the old Ship Labels. Name the new report Ship
Labels. Why start from scratch rather than edit the old report? I have found that editing a
wizard-created report often gives weird results, so I would recommend that you rename
and replace. When the new report works correctly, delete the old report.
I do not know of foil-backed labels that come on 8 x 11 inch sheets. The standard supply
catalogs do not list them as an option. If you want to use
foil-backed or other continuous feed labels, then you will have to investigate whether
Access has an option for dealing with continuous feed labels. Maybe it does, I haven't
looked. I know that foil-backed labels stay on documents better than regular labels.
V.C. How do know whether the Call number will fit on the label?
If you do not change the type of label or the size of the print fields, there is a mark on the
Check-in form that indicates the end of the label. Note below the "Call No." box, there is
a black mark. If the call number extends past that black mark, the end of it will not appear
on the label. For long Sudocs with parts of sets, there are sometimes very long words that
can be creatively abbreviated on the label. When the number is longer than that line,
abbreviation is called for (or a hand-written label).
V.D. When I print out labels, some of the items that I checked-in do
not have labels. What do I do?
The EXCEPTIONS table has a field that can automatically suppress the production of
labels. If you have not then after the upgrade from Autodocs 1.1 to 1.2 gone through your
EXCEPTIONS table and added a "Yes" to the
Produce Labels? field, then for those exceptional series, the label will be suppressed. If
this is what is causing your problem, you need to go to the "Other Operations" page, and
select "Edit EXCEPTIONS table." Then go through each of the exceptional series
records, and check the Produce Label? box.
Another possibility is that the record never got to the point of shelflisting. You might
want to do a shelflist search by shipping list number to verify just what was added. In any
case, one way to add the item to the next batch of documents being processed, reimport
the shipping list, and check it in again. In the check-in form, make sure that the label
check box is selected. When you perform Step #4, you will get errors about violating
unique keys, and the records will not be shelflisted, but they will be placed on the list of
records to get labels.
VI.A. What if I keep getting the same shipping list when I import, even when I
have saved a new one from my browser?
What probably happened was that in your Web Browser, someone had recently saved a
file from the Web to a directory on your computer other than the directory that Autodocs looks
in for importing the shipping list. The default directory for downloading/importing is
"C:\data\access". Whatever
directory was the last one to save files to is now the default download directory. When
you are about to save the new shipping list as file ship.dbf, make sure that you are
saving it in the proper download/import directory (c:\data\access, or whatever you
have changed it to, see How do I change the download
directory?). If you save it to some other directory, Autodocs cannot find
it, and you will keep importing the last ship.dbf that was saved to c:\data\access as the
new shipping list. See section II.B. item #3 for information
about cleaning up the junked shipping lists.
See the checkin procedures in procedur.rtf or procedur.doc for complete instructions on
downloading the shipping lists for processing.
VI.B. What if I keep getting the sample exceptions from Winona State? How
can I get rid of them?
You apparently have not yet clicked on "Autodocs Setup" and initialized the EXCEPTIONS table. Initializing
that table will delete the sample exceptions entries that were sent as a demonstration.
VI.C. What if I click on "Add to or Edit Shipping List" and I get yelled at that something
called WOUTSHIP2 is missing?
For some bizarre reason, the Access object that executes the function of editing the shipping list occasionally disappears.
I don't know whether the person checking in the documents accidentally deletes it, or if it gets deleted by Access as part
of a malfunction. In any case, I have had to replace this object several times in the course of maintaining Autodocs. Here
is what I do:
Go to the Autodocs web site and download a fresh version of the zipped Autodocs application. Save it on your computer in a
known location (like the Desktop). Open you own version of Autodocs.
Access 2003:
First, make sure that WOUTSHIP2 is missing, by looking for it in the Database windonw. Click on the Forms tab, and then
look at the end of the list of forms for WOUTSHIP2. If it is really missing, follow the instructions below.
On the top menu, click on "File", then on "Get External Data" and then on "Import." Locate the fresh version of Autodocs
and click on "Import". In the new window, click on the "forms" tab and then highlight "WOUTSHIP2" and click on OK.
Access 2007:
First, make sure that WOUTSHIP2 is missing, by looking for it in the Navigation Pane on the left side of the screen. If it
is really missing, follow the instructions below.
On the Access top menu, click on External Data. In the Menu below the top, in the Import section, click on "Access".
When the import Access pane opens, click on "Browse" to find the fresh version of Autodocs. When you have located the
fresh Autodocs, click OK. Below the location, check the radio button beside the label "Import Tables, ... into the current
database." Then click on OK.
A new pane will open. Click on the "Forms" tab at the top, and then scroll down the list of forms and highlight WOUTSHIP2".
Click on OK.
END OF FAQ
II. Altering the structure of the database:
Answers
Do you want to open this file or cancel the operation?
II. Altering the structure of the database:
A 1.2:1/1-1
A 1.2:1-1/1
H. Vernon Leighton ,
Coordinator of Liaison Services, Winona State University