Hi,
I have helped a couple of people quietly and now I am ready to blast this one out to the world! Most Carlson support files are text files. I know, what a secret, so what?
So what? Make a couple codes in a blank FLD file (the FLD2FIN file). Open it in Excel, delimited with the |. Now create all the codes in the world so quickly in a spreadsheet. Oh no! How do you get back to a | delimited TXT file? You can either save as a CSV and in a text editor find and replace , with | or you can go into the global Windows settings and change the , to |, then save the CSV, then change the global setting back. Rename your file *.FLD and try it out.
Have fun.
Thadd
Really nice if you are an Excell whiz. What you show will indeed create a code list, but there's a little more to a F2F file than the descriptor codes. That's the tip of the iceberg. The FLD file also includes assignment of blocks and annotation.
If you can write stuff like that in Excell, you should have no problem with building a complete F2F file within Carlson. I can't do squat in Excell, but I can run you up a functional F2F file in no time at all.
The real secret to success in Carlson is to try every pulldown and all items under it. If you are going to modify a default file, save a copy with a unique name on it and then run amuck. You really cannot hurt anything, but should you manage to, your original file is still there and you can dump the messed up copy. You just gotta be adventuresome every now and then.
No wizardy needed, just a few tricks.
Create a FLD file through Carlson with some variable codes. Add at least one with a block. Add one with a line. Add one with a line with a 3d line.
Open Excel
File -> Open
Browse to folder with your FLD file.
Type in *.* enter
You can now see your file, select and open it.
A dialogue comes up to import this text file into Excel
The data is delimited. The separator is the | (second page, custom option)
Wicked easy to read, copy edit and create new codes. All your options made in Carlson are stored here.
You will want to look up Split Screen to see the column names...
It's not difficult to acquire modest Excel skills, we all have it already, and it can be a very handy tool for all sorts of things.