FILES AND DIRECTORIES

This page allows you to define the filenames and folders (or directories) that MARC Report will use by default when looking for MARC files and saving reports. For each option on this page, you may either manually enter a directory or filename, or click the File Cabinet icon on the right to select a directory or filename using a standard Windows 'Open' dialog.

DEFAULT FOLDERS

MARC SEARCH PATH

This option defines the directory on your system that MARC Report will search by default for MARC files. This option can be just a drive letter, like 'F:', or any directory on your system, or any folder on any other system that you can access. You should have write permission on whatever directory you define here.

If your MARC files are usually found in one particular directory, then enter the name of that directory here. If the directory you enter does not exist, the program will ask you if you want to create it.

When you start the program, and go to the File menu, the navigation tool will default to the folder defined here (as the 'MARC Search path'). If there is a problem with that setting, the program will fall back to the 'Marc' subdirectory in your My Documents\MarcReport folder tree.

NOTES

Filenames and directories are not case-sensitive.

If you navigate away from the 'MARC Search path' and select a file in a different folder, and the 'Follow …' option (see below) is selected, that new folder becomes your 'MARC Search path'. If 'Follow opened files' is not selected, then every time you use the File menu, the navigation tool should open in the folder defined above as your 'MARC Search path'.

When you go to one of the Utilities and launch an 'Open File' dialog, either by double-clicking on the utility picture, or, in some cases, by pressing a button (as in Concatenate Files, Import from Text, and Xml2Marc), the navigation dialog will also open in the MARC SEARCH PATH folder. The purpose of the 'picture doubleclick' mechanism is to make it possible to stay in an utility and change the MARC file being worked on; its not a substitute for using the File menu to select the file you want to work on in the first place.

This behavior may cause aggravation at times: we start the program, go to an utility like MARC Review, doubleclick on the picture, and find ourselves in a navigation dialog that is not where we expected; or worse, looking at the default MARC file distributed with the program. One workaround for this is to set the default MARC file to a file in whatever folder you have defined as your MARC Search Path. Then, of course, you have to remember not to move it or delete it

RESULTS FOLDER (formerly BATCH REPORTS DIRECTORY)

This option defines the directory on your system where the results of Batch Mode and Utility runs will be saved. By default it is set to 'My Documents\Marc Report\Reports'. You may change it to any directory on your hard disk. If the directory you enter does not exist, the program will ask you if you want to create it.

NOTE: By design, the program will not allow you to set this directory to a floppy drive. The program may also generate a warning prompt if you set this directory to a network drive, but, although we don't recommend it, this can be overridden by clicking 'Ignore'.

FOLDER OPTIONS

FOLLOW OPENED FILES (aka 'STICKY PATH')

This option simply means that the MARC Search Path will follow (or 'stick to') whatever folder the last-opened MARC file was located in. Therefore, if you doubleclick a file to open the program, the next time that you use the 'File|Select' dialog, it will open the navigation dialog in the folder of the double-clicked file.

If you always want the program to look for your MARC files in the directory specified by MARC Search Path, do not select this option.

OUTPUT RESULTS TO SOURCE

If this option is selected, results will be output to the same folder as the MARC source file. For example, if this option is checked, and you run Batch Mode on a file called D:\MARC\newrecords.mrc, the batchmode report will be output to 'D:\MARC\'; if you do not have write permission on the MARC source folder, the program will then fall back to the setting for 'Results Folder', and if that fails, output will be redirected to whatever $TEMP is set to on your system.

FILENAMES

DEFAULT MARC FILE (formerly MARC SOURCE)

This option defines the name of the MARC file that you will most likely be working with. By default it is set to a 100 record test file that is distributed with the program.

If you start the program and then select an action (either BatchMode, EditMode, or an Utility), the MARC file to be acted upon will be whatever the option 'Default MARC file' is set to in your options. For example, if you start an utility, that utility will expect that you want to work with your default MARC file.

If the files that you edit/review usually have the same filename, then set this option to that name, so that you do not have to select your filename every time you run the program. You will always have the option of running on another file by using the 'File]Select MARC' menu command.

For example, if you use MARC Report to review floppy disks from vendors, you could set this option to 'A:\MICROLIF.001'. Or, if you have MARC software on your system that always exports your records to a file called 'C:\Marc\Export.dat', then you would set this option to 'C:\Marc\Export.dat'.

NOTES: If this option does not specify a directory for the MARC file (i.e. it contains only a filename and no path) then the directory defined in your MARC SEARCH PATH will be added to the filename.

If you start the program and select a MARC file using the File menu (or doubleclick on a file in Windows to start the program), this newly-selected MARC file will become the default. For example, if you select a MARC file and then start an utility, that utility will expect that you want to work with the MARC file you just selected.

This MARC file, whether the default, or one you selected, remains set until you do something to change it. For example, if you select a MARC file using the File menu, and then run an utility, and instruct the utility to open the resulting MARC file in MARC Report, then that resulting MARC file becomes the new 'default'.

The value of this default MARC file should be visible at any given time in the statusbar at the bottom of the screen.

REPORT FILENAME

This option defines the name of the report file that the program creates when running in Batch Mode. The default value for this option is 'marcrept.txt' in the BATCH REPORTS DIRECTORY. By adding the extension '.TXT' to the end of the filename, you will be able to open reports simply by doubleclicking them in Windows.

NOTE: If this option does not specify a directory for the report file (i.e. it contains only a filename and no path) then report will be written to the directory defined in your BATCH REPORTS DIRECTORY.

BACKGROUND IMAGE

This option will be the name of the image file used for the main window of MARC Report. The program is distributed with only one background image in order to speed up download time. Click the filing cabinet icon to navigate to any picture on your system.

PERFECTION IMAGE

This option will be the name of the image file used for the 'perfection' picture–an image that will appear when a record is validated and no errors are found. The program is distributed with only one perfection image in order to speed up download time. Click the filing cabinet icon to navigate to any picture on your system.

Note that because of its shape, not all images may be suitable for use as a 'perfection' image (which occupies a long, but somewhat narrow, area on the screen).

CYCLE (formerly ROTATE)

A checkbox called 'Cycle' is placed after the two 'Image' options above. If enabled, this option tells the program to cycle through a collection of images located in the folders described below.

To enable 'cycling' follow these steps:

For BACKGROUND IMAGES 1. Add the pictures you want to use to this folder: My Documents\MarcReport\Images\main 2. Click the filing cabinet icon on the right and select any picture in the folder above 3. Select the 'Cycle' option

To test this option, start the program and, in version 2, click on the top status bar; in version 3, click on the 'Status' section of the status bar.

For PERFECTION IMAGES 1. Add the pictures you want to use to this folder: My Documents\MarcReport\Images\perfect 2. Click the filing cabinet icon on the right and select any picture in the folder above 3. Select the 'Cycle' option

To test this option, start the program, select a file of perfect records, and navigate from one to the next.

NOTES ABOUT IMAGES

Only .BMP (Windows Bitmap) and .JPG (JPEG) images are recognized by the program.

The image subdirectories 'main' and 'perfect' should be created during installation and a default picture added to each.

If 'cycle' is selected and the corresponding image folder is missing, the program will revert to the default picture.

Make sure the 'Cycle' option is not selected when you are not using the default picture location.

Hint: Sometimes you may want to remove an image from the rotation. But rather than deleting images, just drag the unwanted image up one level to the Images folder, where it will be ignored by the image rotator, but still available if you change your mind.