FORMalizer.rev

[Luis]

I reckon that would make a nice article for the RevUp Newsletter,  
small tools for big jobs.

Cheers,

Luis.


On 17 Mar 2009, at 01:22, Peter Brigham MD wrote:

> The best reason in the world to build a tool is because you need  
> it. So I have been putting together a utility that I have been  
> wanting for a while now. I found myself continually filling out  
> paper forms by entering data that I had stored digitally and  
> feeling that I was wasting hours of time cumulatively in a really  
> boring endeavor. If you face the same problem, here is something  
> that might help. FORMalizer is a stack that allows you to import a  
> scanned PNG or JPG image from a paper form and overlay fields that  
> you arrange.
>
> Once you have set up all your fields and adjusted your layout,  
> click a button to clone the stack, and FORMalizer closes, leaving a  
> free-standing stack containing your form and fields. Now set the  
> mainstack of your new form to an existing stack system. Once you  
> have done that, click a button and a script snippet is generated  
> with a line for every field in your form. It looks something like  
> this:
>
> put empty into fld id 1280 of card 1 of \
> stack "initAssmt" -- gender
> put empty into fld id 1281 of card 1 of \
> stack "initAssmt" -- DOB
> put empty into fld id 1282 of card 1 of \
> stack "initAssmt" -- age
>
> Paste the script snippet into any handler in your stack system that  
> you want to handle the printing. Then you can adjust the script so  
> it looks something like:
>
> put toUpper(char 1 of gender) into fld id 1280 of \
> card 1 of stack "initAssmt" -- gender
> put fld "DOB" into fld id 1281 of card 1 of \
> stack "initAssmt" -- DOB
> put doAge(fld "DOB") into fld id 1282 of card 1 of \
> stack "initAssmt" -- age
>
> Any unaltered lines ensure that the corresponding field is emptied.  
> The script snippet ends with some commands for printing -- all the  
> rest of the scripting is contained in the FORMalizer substack.
>
> Feel free to try it out and use it ad lib. It's developed on a Mac  
> but should work on Windows -- on the other hand, cross-platform  
> stuff is sometimes tricky. I'm willing to try to iron out any  
> wrinkles left in it if enough people are interested. I think there  
> are a couple lines of script that make it only a Rev 3.0+ tool, but  
> if someone wants a version that runs in 2.9 I could probably adjust  
> it accordingly.
>
> I guess that one or another of the really great report-generating  
> utilities can do this kind of thing as well, but I think it's fun  
> to build your own tools. Plus, it's cheaper.
>
> Available at RevOnline, username pmbrig
>
> Peter M. Brigham
> pmbrig at gmail.com
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