|
I agree with you but it is an
issue that has yet to get mgmt's attention, (although it is going to when they
see how much time we are spending supporting n+1 platforms, software,
etc.
Mark Allen
IS Manager
Kelly's
Kids
markallen@kellyskids.com
Mark:
I think that the sentence,
"we have a large % of not-so-computer-literate users (and that's another
completely different issue)" is not right. Your collection of "not so
computer literate users" and their collection of machines and software is the
real issue. All of those people have not enough training. The
entire problem vanishes if you standardize on software and training. At
that point, it would be easy to improve everyone's situation with once change
applied to 1,000 places instead of dozens of changes applied to dozens of
places.
In my experience, you will be
lucky (not clever) if you can solve this problem with technology. I
suspect that the moderate application of some hard work will fix this in a
much more satisfactory way.
Richard Jackson
mailto:richardjackson@richardjackson.net
www.richardjacksonltd.com
Voice:
1 (303) 808-8058
Fax: 1 (303) 663-4325
I am doing this already in
creating the CSV file on the AS/400 and emailing it to the user. My
issue is that we have a large % of not-so-computer-literate users (and
that's another completely different issue) who have no idea of what to do
with a CSV file, how to format once they do manage to open in Excel, Lotus,
etc. Specifically what I am looking for is a solution that will take
an AS/400 PF and convert it on the AS/400 into a specified format Excel,
Lotus, Works, etc. so it can be emailed (again from the
AS/400).
Thanks to all who have
responded so far, given me some ideas, food for thought, will let everyone
(no I didn't say Y'all THIS time) know what I finally end up
doing.
Mark Allen
IS Manager
Kelly's
Kids
markallen@kellyskids.com
I have a similar process, needing to output
AS400 data to pc users (customers). We standardized on .csv which is
easily readable by Excel & Access. My RPG writes a flat file in QTEMP,
with column headings in first record, followed by records of data. Make
the column headings equal to the max length of data in each field. Then
CPYTOIMPF cmd will take the AS400 native file and create a .csv in a
directory named by cust id. Then I either FTP it to the user (you can
capture the IP address they are at during their interactive session from
within a clp) or e-mail it. Most of my users prefer e-mail. They only have
to click on the attachment to open it (and if they have set .csv files to
be opened with Excel) the spreadsheet opens. Then they can do their Excel
things, print, save, change, etc. We let users send data to the AS400 in
the same .csv format, and CPYFRMIMPF works great. A little tricky with
NULL fields, and have to edit the heck out of every single column (dates
like 29/29/29 and dollar amounts like 128.b9). But it runs by itself &
users only need to know how to open e-mail
or find the ftp'd file.
Jim Franz
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Tuesday, August 08, 2000 4:53
PM
Subject: Re: Generating PC file
formats from AS/400 data
Mark,
I am having the same problem, so I have been doing
some research. Gumbo software has a program called Spool-A-Matic
that will transform spool files into .TXT, PDF, and RTF files right on
the AS/400. If you are using J.D.Edward there are utilities in the
FastR report tool that will create PC Files. Another option is
ShowCase Strategy software, this software makes it easy to pull info
down and configure it into any of the formats you
mentioned.
>>> markallen@kellyskids.com 08/08/00 12:13PM
>>>
We have recently stated sending data to our sales reps
in the field as CSV
files. It is running completely on the
AS/400, no problems with that.
However, there are a number of our
reps who have little to no PC expertise
and they are having major
issues (which in turn is causing us more work)
importing/opening the
data in their "program of choice".
What I am looking for is a way
(on the AS/400) to generate the file as an
Excel spreadsheet (.XLS),
Lotus (.123) or a MS Works worksheet and database
(.WKS, .WDB) so
they can avoid the import function, having to resize columns
to fit
existing data, etc. Want them to be able to just double click on
the
attachment and voila, data is there and formatted in their
program of
choice.
Any ideas????
Mark Allen
IS
Manager
Kelly's Kids
markallen@kellyskids.com
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