AUCTION VIEWER

Purpose:

    Auction Viewer (AV) is a DOS program to facilitate the use of
    "Zipped" auction catalogs downloaded from Stamp Auction Central.

Instructions:

    Download Auction Viewer in a directory where you also download
    the "zipped" auction catalog files.

    Insure that you have PKUNZIP in this directory or there is a
    path to the directory where it is located.

    To run Auction Viewer type AV and press ENTER.  Instructions for
    using Auction Viewer are on the screen.  There are four basic
    functions.

        Unzip a catalog file

        Search for a character string in the lot description.  For
        example, by entering the string "new york" you will get a
        display of each lot containing the phase New York in the
        lot description.  Note that the search string is not case
        sensitive.

        Prepare a text version of the catalog.  This function takes
        the unzipped catalog and formats into a text file which is a
        complete catalog.  This text file can then be viewed with an
        editor or printed.  Because of the great length of most
        catalogs no viewer is provided with AV.  The second option in
        the sub menu for this feature allows the user to view the
        catalogs that are already in text format.

        Maintenance.  This feature allows the user to rename zip files
        and delete old or unwanted files.

User Notes:

    When using the search feature it is best to enter a string of at
    least three or more characters that specifically describe what
    you are looking for.  Some times this may take several searches.
    For example, to search for lots containing Georgia postal history
    you should cover all bases by searching "GA" and "GEO".

    Avoid searching on such common strings as "THE".  If you get too
    many "hits" on a string you may encounter a memory overflow
    problem and the program will abort.

    The rename feature is included to enable the user to make the
    the names more meaningful.  For example you can rename a DBF file
    called "707" to "JSA707" where the "JSA" stands for the auction
    house.  Note the rename feature will only rename the DBF files
    (these are the files used by the search feature).

    If you get thrown out the program suddenly it is probably because
    an error occurred.  Error trapping is limited to the detection of
    any error.  Thus, when an error is encountered the program will
    exit back to the DOS prompt with no message as to the reason.

    For those that may wonder why AV is not in color, it is a problem
    with Windows 3.1.  When you attempt to run a color version of AV
    from Windows the colors go crazy.

Comments:

    User comments and suggestions are welcome.  Send e-mail to
    fcrown@ro.com or s-mail to Frank Crown, PO Box 171, Madison, AL
    35758.