Using Tome.exe


Do not read this file until you have read the file prebind.txt


This text is a suppliment to the instructions in prebind.txt. In this file we will just explain the TomeRaider file format and suggest some tips. All you need to make TomeRaider files is described in Prebind.txt. 




The Tab File format.


Before making the TR file you will need a source of data. This can be in any form so long as it can be converted into a TAB separated text file; Excel Spread Sheets, Access databases or CSV text databases are all ideal.As of course are normal etext files. To do this you need to make a Tab file.


A Tab file is a normal text file that is formatted so that it can be converted into a TomeRaider file. Each line of the Tab file contains one entire TomeRaider entry. Here is an example sction from a Tab file ready to be made into a TomeRaider file:


Dup	v. t. To open; as, to dup the door. Shak.
Dupable	a. Capable of being duped.
Dupe	n. One who has been deceived or who is easily deceived; a gull; as, the dupe of a schemer.
Dupe	v. t. To deceive; to trick; to mislead by imposing on one's credulity; to gull; as, dupe one by flattery.@'Ne'er have I duped him with base counterfeits.' Coleridge.
Duper	n. One who dupes another.



This section of the text would correspond to 5 entries in a TomeRaider file. A TomeRaider file has two sections, the index and the body text. The seperator between these two is the TAB vharacter. You can see this in the above text. You can also see in the fourth entry, the symbol @. This is a reserved symbol that means NEW LINE. If you have used Prebinder, one of the things it does is to convert NEW LINES into @`s. So, all you need to do 




Making the TomeRaider file.

Once you have your TAB separated text file you are now ready to make the TomeRaider file. To do this you will need the application Tome.exe. This is a dos application and will only work from either dos or the Win95 etc command propt. 

Tome.exe needs to always be placed in the same directory as the file you are going to convert. If the TAB separated text file is in c:\tr\ then a copy of Tome.exe needs to be in c:\tr\ .

Open a dos prompt and go to the directory where the Text file and Tome.exe are kept. Then just type: tome filename

For example if the text file is called websters.txt you would type at the promt:

tome websters.txt

After a few seconds your TomeRaider file will be created in the same directory as the original text file. It will have the same name as the text file but with the extention .tr instead of .txt. thus websters.txt will be converted into websters.tr.

When the file has been made Tome.exe will also display the number of entries in the final TomeRaider file. This number can be very helpful in checking that the conversion has worked because if it is different than what you expect then it is likley that something has gone wrong (Which it shouldnt have if the input file was of the correct TAB separated format).

Tome.exe has only minimal error and checking. If the input file is not in the correct TAB seperated format it may crash or produce a messy TomeRaider file. We are confident that IN ALL CASES if the input text file is good then there will be no problem; its up to you to make sure the input file is good.

 

 
Notes and Tips and Tricks

 

TextPad is a very powerfull text editor with great find and replace options - it is also very fast and can handle huge files.If you use Textpad for making TomeRaider files we ask that you kindly register it (They have no connection to us). 

Microsoft Word is pretty good at editing large text files, but it doesnt have the editing power or the speed of Textpad.

Microsoft access is a very handy tool in the final stages of preperation because you can sort the file, check for blank recods etc. It is also good because you can export straight to a TAB separated text file. 

The secret to making decent TR files is to tidy the data using Find and Replace in whatever text editor you are using. This way you can remove HTML tags etc. 

Always keep a track of how many records should be in that data as it is being prepared. This is essential for consitency checks. 

TextPad has some good macros for stripping HTML tags from a document. 

With large files, always save different versions of the text as it is being edited so you can go back if you make mistakes. 
 


PLEASE DO NOT USE TOMERAIDER FOR COPYRIGHTED TEXTS

 
Contact


The TomeRaider website is at www.tomeraider.co.uk.


We can be contacted at jzjones(a)ukonline.co.uk and skovax(at)ukonline.co.uk.


The reason that we typed (at) in the above addresses is that the AT symbol familiar to us all, and the tab character, are not available in TomeRaider files. This is something we will change in the next file format update....


