Dr. Plexfixer, March '96

"Dr. Plexfixer," they said, "Yes," I replied, after all it is still my name. "Could you give us some tips?" they said. "Of course, don't take wooden nickels, don't eat yellow snow, don't vote for politicians...." Apparently that wasn't what was meant. Could I give some Uniplex tips? Well of course, I mean, is the Pope a Catholic? Is Beadle a bout? So without further ado, lets gung ho, tips at 12 o'clock high!

1. WP - Don't Spell Addresses

You can turn spell checking on and off around lines of text, great for when you don't want to check an address block or similar.

• To skip a section: enter Tools, Spell, Stop
  
• To start again: enter Tools, Spell, Go
  
• Or use .UP 2 0 and .UP 2 1

2. WP - Quick Draw Boxes

A little known fact is that Uniplex remembers the last top left corner of any cut and paste action. This is particularly useful for drawing a table of boxes, since you only need to mark the top left once, then just draw the bottom right of all the boxes.

• Mark top left, use ESC-(
• Mark bottom right, use ESC-)
• Mark another bottom right
• Keep moving and marking

3. WP - Repeated Lines

There are times when you need to repeat several lines, I often use this when creating a Plexfixer special form:

• Control-X deletes a line
• Control-R restores a line
• Control-R keeps adding the line
• Great for building forms and tables

4. WP - Quick Effects

• ESCAPE-<-Effect to turn it on
• ESCAPE-> to turn it off.

5. WP - Which Effect?

Now, often your terminal won't show all the different effects you have set on a document (get yourself a decent terminal boy!).

• You can get the name of a print effect by using ESCAPE-@ the name of the effect is shown at the top of screen

6. WP - Fonts for Printers

If you've got a Postscript printer then Uniplex is already set up for you, but if you use other models then the font list you see when selecting a font does not show the fonts available for your printer. (That is unless you have V8.10 - well done chaps).

If you want to set your own list of fonts then:

• Edit the file UAP/wp/uniplex.box which holds the dialog boxes for WP
  
• Find the #FONTS section
  
• You can edit this list to show fonts which your printer supports.

7. Merge Unix Command

Would you like to get the output from a Unix command into your document, you could get the current date, the results from database queries, all sorts of stuff.

• Use .ME !command for print-time

• or ESC-ME !command at edit time

• You may need to edit MERGE in uniplex.sys. The MERGE field shows which Unix commands can be merged in (to provide protection from running dangerous commands). You need to add your special commands to this list.

8. USQL - Building Use Scripts

You've just spent ages building up the USQL command to perform the most amazing select, and now you want to save it for re-use as a "use" script. Well you can painstakingly copy it out longhand or you can do this...

• Get your select statement working

• Enter "write filename $$" - this saves the last 100 commands to file or

• Enter "write filename $xx" - where xx is the number of the last command

• Enter "use filename" to repeat it
  
• You can then edit the script and add "database dbname" at the top so you don't have to select database before running the script.

9. Reports - Zap them Nulls!

Fed up with getting "(null)" entered into your reports when calling data from USQL?

• In the data section use
  "usql -f9 ...."
  
• This makes (null)s come out as blanks

10. Quick KeyTapes

Keytapes are a brilliant aid in Uniplex, particularly when you want to set up some quick, repeating command for a bit of editing. These shortcuts will help you:

• ESCAPE-KB (Keytape Begin) to start

• ESCAPE-KE (Keytape End) to stop

• Control-T to play it over and over

11. Privacy Mode

Ever been caught writing your CV, playing Lottery Finder on the spreadsheet, drawing insulting pictures of the boss, examining Health and Efficiency Weekly? Well, Uniplex has a "hide screen" option.

• Enter ESCAPE-O-W to hide your screen

• Hit <SPACE> to restore it
  

12. Making a Screen Dump

"Dear Dr. Plexfixer, I have to write training manuals for the users of our custom Uniplex solution, is there anyway I can capture screen dumps to put into my manual?"

• Enter ESCAPE : D (colon D)

• This dumps screen to clipboard (although sadly not the softkey line)

• Doesn't dump the softkey line

13. Alarms & Mail Stopped?

"Dr. Plexfixer, please help - my mail isn't arriving and my alarms don't ring - in consequence of failed to get the 'Dear John' letter from my wife because I didn't remember our anniversary! Please help me get my marriage back on the straight and narrow!!"

Well, nine times out of ten it is because the alarms file has become corrupted.

• Use "uclock -l" to list all alarms to the screen - the format is pretty clear and you are looking for garbage entries in the file.

• If corrupted, delete the file UAP/diary/diary.alarms and re-enter any alarms
  
• Don't forget to add "umd_runix" and "umd_clean" from the Admin menu

14. Mail for Managers

"Dear Dr. Plexfixer, I am a very busy (and pompous, Dr. P) man. Is there any way I don't have to deal with hundreds of mail messages each day?"

• Use uniplex.alias to redirect mail to your secretary
  
• Secretary screens mail
  
• Secretary forwards mail to real name

Alternatively, you could go for a personality transplant.

15. File Manager List Options

Do you want to see more file information, or see the file lists presented in different orders, like by time instead of alphabetically?

• With a file list on screen type ESCAPE-OF for different views

• Includes name, time and date

• Sorts by date as well as alphabet

As you type ESCAPE-O-F it will beep at you, but ignore this. The lists are available in long and short forms and sorted by name or time.

16. Folios Don't Work

"Dr. Plexfixer, our folios don't work" or "Dr. Plexfixer, I keep finding core files in my directory" - these are two very common complaints I get. Another is "Dr. Plexfixer, when are you going to buy a round?"

• If you use folios and they stop working... Use this command at a Uniplex shell prompt to check and correct (you must be logged in as root).
  "cd $Uniplex; bcheck .ufo .ufopath"
  
• In V8, must goto a database module, then run the shell escape to run bcheck.

17. Folios Getting Better

Now, of course, that's all very well, but what happens when your folios system is no longer in step with your Unix system. You know, files have turned up, gone away again, arrived late - generally like a bad and rumbustuos party.

• With V8 you can match folios to Unix:
  
  "ufomanager -u MODTIME" checks against the Unix time on the file
  
  "ufomanager -u FILESYSTEM" removes folios for files which are no longer on Unix
  

18. Pound Signs!

I'd like to see ££££££'s!!!! Please send my your cheque by return.

• Use ESCAPE-%-# to enter a pound sign, this works anywhere, on any terminal and is pretty much guaranteed to print.

19. Foreign Characters

No, we're not talking some Portillo Johnny Foriegner guff here, I'm talking International Character Set. Sounds like a EC party! What I mean is accented letters, umlauts and all that stuff.

Uniplex lets you compose these characters, you start with a "compose" start, then the letters you want to accent.

• Start with ESC-ESC-0 (the compose start) then the accent and then the letter

• For example, ESC-ESC-0-^-a gives â

20. Calling Uniplex in Scripts

Creating your own shell scripts or screen builder options and want to call up the word processor?

• You can call the editor in a script with "uniplex -q filename"
  

You can create a file with "uniplex -q -c"

21. So can I print from scripts?

Well, I suppose now you've created your file (or any other plain text file for that matter) you are going to want to print it. Option one is you invoke "uprop" with about 8 zillion arguments. Option two is:

• Use "pprint filename" to print
  
• "pprint -s filename", prints to screen
  
• "pprint -f filename", calls print form

22. How do I give users tips?

Leaving 10pence on the table by your empty coffee cup is one way. Simon Boardman suggested this...

• Use unix Message of the Day
  
• Edit the file "/etc/motd". This file is shown whenever a user logs in to the machine.

Here, hang on, that's more than 20 tips! Good grief, you'll be wanting free support next!! Right, no more till next time.

Toodle Pip!