NDC comm CompuFax User Manual

Page 81

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Description:

Includes an explicit phone number to use for sending the FAX. The syntax of the number is

the same as the SEND command / NUMBER qualifier. Only the first occurrence of the # # NUMBER or
# # LOOKUP directive is used. Subsequent occurrences of these directives are ignored. The SEND qualifier
/ NUMBER overrides # # NUMBER..

OVERLAY_FILE
Format:

# # OVERLAY_FILE filename

Description:

This directive defines the name of the overlay file that goes with the current page of text.

Overlay files must always be T4 files. The full pathname must be specified with this directive.

PAGE
Format:

# # PAGE

Description:

This directive causes a new page to be started. You can also generate a page break by placing

a ^L in column 1. Text after ^L on the same line is treated as a comment and is not transmitted.

PORTRAIT
Format:

# # PORTRAIT

Description:

Specifies that the current document is to be sent without rotating it clockwise 90 degrees. For

this directive to apply to the page in which it is issued, it must occur in the very first line of that page,
otherwise its execution is deferred until the start of the next page. This directive overrides a / LANDSCAPE
qualifier in the SEND command.

POSITION _CURSOR
Format:

# # POSITION_CURSOR [ DOTS | INCHES | MILLIMETERS [Vert [Hor ]]]

Description:

This directive causes the next line of text to start Vert units from the bottom of the header

line at the top of the page and Hor units from the left. If a logo is included (at the top of the first page,) Vert
is measured from the bottom of the logo. Values of Vert and Hor may contain decimal fractions. Since a page
cannot be printed in reverse, if Vert specifies a position above the current position on the page, it is ignored.

REMARK
Format:

# # REMARK text

Description:

Includes a comment in the file. Note that # # REMARK is functionally equivalent to # # !.

7.2.2 Mail-Merge Direc t ives

CompuFax has a facility to do automatic replacement of portions of text in a document with text taken from
the database. This replacement operation is known as mail-merge or text substitution. Control strings which
the user has embedded in a document are replaced at the time the document is sent. This is particularly useful
for form letters which may be sent to a number of destinations, based on a wild-card database lookup. Mail-
merge is only supported on printer format (ASCII) files. To use mail-merge, the document must have been
sent specifying a database lookup. The database returns field names and corresponding values. Please refer to
Chapter 3 for information on how to use text substitution.

Users may use the FAX_DB sample database or develop their own database application. In order to cause a
text substitution, the user includes field names in the document marked by special delimiters (the default is
"%%" for start and end, but this can be changed). At the time the document is sent, each delimited field name
is replaced by the field value from the current database record whose name matches the field name in the
document. If the database is unable to return a value for a field name, the field name string is deleted in the
document as sent. Text lines which contain only unsatisfied fields, spaces and punctuation marks are not sent
at all.

The field name %%# MATCH_KEY%% is reserved. This is substituted with the key from the database, as
returned by the database application. Field names may contain any characters except the currently defined

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