Re: All power to the "WorldMaster"?

[ELuthy]

I, too, just received a message providing me with a Safeworld account and 
password although I did not request one. I'm not sure how to interpret this. 

What I really need--and have needed for two years--is instructions on how to 
open a  NBDos 4.2 file in NBWin and have it formatted for printing just as it 
was in 4.2: i.e., with a header that is wider than the body (so I can print 
the page number in the top right corner of the page even though the text 
itself is only ca. 4 inches wide), with exactly 27 (double-spaced) lines to 
the page, and with formatting beginning on the first page, not the second 
page. (Or perhaps these things are simply not possible to do in NBWin.)

Although I still key, sort, and edit my indexes in NB3 (whose totally 
key-command structure and highly controllable window openings/sequencings I 
find ideal for processing the massive amount of  entry-inputting that must be 
done in an exceedingly short time to meet deadline, often 4000 lines in less 
than a week), since 1995 I have opened and tweaked the finished index in 
NB4.2 to access its more up-to-date printer drivers.

When the need to purchase a new laptop caused me to have to "upgrade" to 
Win98SE in 2000 I also purchased NBWin 5.2 (then the latest version) with the 
hope of opening my 4.2 files in 5.2, and accessing its printing capabilities, 
as well as what I hoped would be enhanced abilities to convert the finished 
files to the upgraded w.p. formats (Word, etc.) currently used by various 
publishers--expecting, too, as time went on, to become familiar with 5.2's 
other features as I had gradually done with 4.2's. I have since invested MANY 
hours attempting simply to open a 4.2 index file in 5.2 without the format 
getting wrecked in the process, but have so far been totally unsuccessful. (I 
was finally able to print 27 lines to the page by a laborious process of 
iteration wherein I kept changing the spacing in small increments and then 
counting the resultant lines by hand.) Each two- or three-hour 
attempt-session with NBWin has ended in such bitter, hellish, tearful 
frustration. I can only run to bury my head in the lovely old sand of NB3 and 
try not to think about what will happen when THIS laptop needs replacement 
and I will no longer be able to run DOS programs at all.

I think I have not approached the list before because my problem is so 
retrograde it is quite likely beneath contempt for up-to-date power 
users...and the NBWin manualless door has seemed so completely closed to me 
it's been hard to know where to begin a question. (To give you an idea of 
where my brain is at, I taught Assembler Language at IBM in the 1960s, when 
disks were the size of tires and held 8000 bytes--and followed along until 
Gates' Windows so totally covered up the underlying process I could no longer 
fathom what was going on in there.) Now perhaps the list itself is cracking 
up, and this will be my last chance to ask.

TIA for any help.


Elaine Luthy
Professional Indexing and Copyediting Services
(212) 366-0761
ELuthy