step 2

The hard part is over -- getting Multi-view ( or finding where you put your copy ) and getting it installed on the PC's -- getting a serial line and a serial adaptor -- getting the right pin in the right slot -- and any changes on the serial side -- are you at 9,600 or 19,200 baud rate - the whole concept of setting up the defaults is tough --find an older J-Con person on the help desk and treasure that knowledge ..... so it works ( or on the 2 or 5th time ) .... And with the local GPI computer guys so busy with new Exploris installs -it isn't like they have much time for us... :-(

Now - lets take a report and save and open in Excel ( there are other potions like www.openoffice.org and google with FREE equivelent items to excel - we use the Older version 97 in excel - so you don't need anything brand new )

You have played with the screen buffer ( so you can copy small patches of text and paste directly ) - but lets copy a report ...

Steps .... 1) the normal width for J-Con is 80 characters wide and for a report is 132 wide ...see a looming problem ... the last thing you want is the report 'wrapped' into a 2nd line ... so ... you will learn to change the settings ( or be like me and leave it at 132 ) -- do this - under configure - terminal - terminal type > configure -- set the normal to 132 wide
2) enter a report to run - pick a small one to start - like a 2-19 for FRI - before you get to the press ENTER to start - hit the red record button - then run the report --and hit the black stop record button - and give you test report a name
3) open excel - remember where you saved the test report - and try to open it -- you won't see it ...damm ... now change FILE TYPE to ALL FILES and your log file will show
4) excel gives you two options - de-limited and fixed width - you will usually used fixed width - but for this one - pick delimited -- nothing will really happen --as J-Con doesn't embed any de-limiter characters ---so what you will see is a full virgin copy of what you copied ...but what do we do with it?
5) if your report opens and it looks ugly -- and it will look ugly -- you need to understand non-proportional fonts - change to COURIER font and suddenly the report shuffles into focus
6) how do you cut the report into strips -- you can use the DATA - text to columns option in Excel to cut into strips - play with it and once you start using a report on a regular basis - you can REMEMBER where to cut on a cheat sheet