MayFlower develops specialty software products for Lotus Notes & Domino.
Chapter 4 - Word Processing Import
Table of Contents

How Word Processing Import Works
Word Processing allows batch import of Word Processing documents from a subdirectory. Each document loads into a rich text field in one Notes form.

Typical Uses

1. The legal department wants to full text search, quickly and easily using Notes, all contracts written in the past 5 years.

2. Product Development wants to catalog all specification sheets for all products.

3. Corporate Communications (Public Relations) wants a catalog of all press releases in the last 3 years.

4. Customer Service wants a catalog of all responses to Customer Complaint Letters.

5. Purchasing wants a list of all contracts that support Purchase Orders. They reference the legal database (item #1, above).

6. Marketing wants a catalog of all competitive information collected in the last 3 years.


Points to Remember

1. The Sentinel reads from a user defined sub-directory, on any drive letter, and reads all of the Word Processing documents that exist there.

2. Each Word Processing document is loaded into its own Note, into a rich text field.

3. Each Word Processing document is compared to the corresponding Note in the Notes database. The "key" is the DOS file name, with full DOS path.

4. If the date of the WP document matches the file date stored in the Notes form, Sentinel will not update the Notes document.

5. If the date of the WP document does not match the file date stored in the Notes form, Sentinel will update the Notes document.

6. The update will overwrite in the entire content of the Word Processing document into the Notes rich text field.


Tips and Techniques

1. As there could be more than one Notes database supporting more than one department, create multiple tasks in the Sentinel Tasks.nsf database, one for each department. Each of these tasks can reference a different Notes database. This will give much higher security, if necessary.

2. Create a public directory on a network file server. Users can copy WP files to this public directory for general cataloging of WP documents. Run the Sentinel every night. Tell the server to full text index these documents. Users will then have quick access to company documents (according to their ACL).

3. Users can run their own copy of the Sentinel, and contribute to the main Notes database directly from their private c: drive. (Sentinel licensing allows these users to run the product at no extra charge).

4. Word Processing can be added to other Notes documents, as long as the Sentinel can find a key to match the two. For example, a contracts database in Notes could contain many fields concerning the financial relationship, the parties names, dates and times. Adding a rich text field to this form allows the Sentinel to bulk import the body of the contract into this form.






Example
In this Example, we will import multiple Microsoft Word files into Lotus Notes.
Notice the comments in the square boxes.


Supported Import Types

TypeImport into FieldFile ExtensionFile Description
ASCII TextRich Text fieldAnyUnformatted text

Word Processing
TypeImport into FieldPC File ExtensionFile Description
Lotus Ami ProRich Text field.SAMAmi Pro 1.x or later
Lotus Manuscript®
(not UNIX)		Rich Text field.DOCManuscript 2.0 and 2.1
Microsoft® Rich Text Format (RTF)Rich Text field.RTFApplications that support .RTF, such as Word
Microsoft RTF with embedded bitmapRich Text field.RTFApplications that support .RTF, such as Word
Microsoft Word(Windows only)Rich Text field.DOCWord for Windows 1.x or 2.0
IBM DisplayWrite® DCA
(not UNIX)		Rich Text field.RFTIBM DisplayWrite and applications that support it
WordPerfect®Rich Text field.DOCWordPerfect 4.1 and later, including WP 5.1 for Windows
MicroPro® WordStar®
(not UNIX)		Rich Text field.DOCWordStar 3.3 and later
Frame Technologies
Frame Maker®
(UNIX only)		Rich Text field.MIFFrame Maker 3.0 or later
Interleaf ASCII (UNIX only)Rich Text fieldInterleaf Version 5 or later
Borland® MultiMate®
(not UNIX)		Rich Text field.DOCMultiMate 3.3 and later
Pictures
TypeImport into FieldFile ExtensionFile Description
PC Paintbrush®
(not UNIX)		Rich Text field.PCXRaster graphic
Lotus 1-2-3 and Symphony® graphic
(not UNIX)		Rich Text field.PICPicture created in Lotus 1-2-3 or Symphony
ANSI MetafileRich Text field.CGM, .GMFPicture created in software supporting ANSI Metafile, such as Freelance® Plus, Graphwriter®, or 1-2-3 Release 3.x
TIFF 5.0 imageRich Text field.TIFBitmapped image scanned into software supporting TIFF
Bitmap
(not UNIX)		Rich Text field.BMPBitmapped image
Windows/PM Clipboard
(not UNIX)		Rich Text field.TIF for bitmaps, .CGM for Metafiles (export only)Picture created in a Windows or OS/2 application
Macintosh Clipboard
(not UNIX)		Rich Text fieldNonePicture created in most Macintosh applications
Worksheet and Database Files
TypeImport into FieldFile ExtensionFile Description
Lotus 1-2-3 and SymphonyRich Text field.WKS, .WK1, .WRK, .WR1, .WK3Entire worksheet or named range created in Lotus 1-2-3 for DOS 1A or later, 1-2-3 for Windows, 1-2-3 for Macintosh, or Symphony 1.0 and later
Microsoft Excel (Windows only)Rich Text field.XLSMicrosoft Excel 2.1, 3.0, or 4.0
Tabular TextRich Text field.TAB, .TXT, .PRN, .RPTASCII text arranged in rows and columns; limit of 1536 characters per record, total
Structured TextRich Text field.LTR, .CGN, and .STRASCII text that retains its structure in fields and values; limit of 256 bytes per simple text field