Magic Resource Center Article

Title:	Creating and Modifying Laser Rosters
Submitted by:	Rapattoni Software Support
Issue:	How can I create and modify laser rosters? Also, can I export these rosters?

The laser rosters in Rapattoni Magic allow you to print professional quality rosters that are camera-ready for your publisher.We have many users who want to know about more advanced laser roster options, like exporting and saving these rosters. Here are some of the most common questions we receive that we will address in more detail. How do you set them up for export? What are the filenames that are created? What directory do the files get saved to? What is the file layout? What do the files contain? We want you to take advantage of all the features you have available to you with laser rosters, and here’s how!

Setting up Laser Rosters for export :

In addition to the existing rosters, you can create a variety of rosters based on various criteria. You may choose to modify the selection criteria of an existing roster or create a new roster. These can include Member Rosters, MLS Rosters, Committee Rosters, Affiliate Rosters, and more. State Associations can produce these rosters for the entire state or for individual local associations.

Creating an ASCII File for export:

Perhaps you would like to send your office and member information to an outside vendor (such as a printer), or sell the information to members who wish to load this information onto their personal computers. It is possible to export the roster information for use by any third party software package. You can choose whether to have the information copied to a diskette or formatted for export, where it can be modified. The files will be in ASCII fixed length format. ASCII files can be imported into many third party software packages, making them extremely versatile. The file formats are “.dat” and they use the following names:

NOTE: If you would like to copy to a diskette, you must select the Report Option “Diskette” in the Roster Selection Criteria Form.

assoc.dat

office.dat

member.dat

Magic will create a report that outlines the layout (field names, field type, and field size) for each of the files that are created when you create the roster. Magic will send these files to the same directory in which your merge files are sent, and you can specify this in the “User Setup Form.”

Modifying/Creating a New Roster:

1. Select Rosters from the Member Reports menu.

2. Zoom to the Roster Type Table. All existing rosters will be present.

a. To create a new roster, click the Create button in the toolbar. A blank Roster Selection Criteria Form displays, with default values entered in some select fields.You can fill in the appropriate criteria and then press Escape to exit and save.

b. To modify a roster, highlight and Zoom on the roster type you want to modify. Make any appropriate changes to the form, and then press Escape to exit and save.

As you may have noted, Laser Rosters can be a very valuable and powerful tool. We hope you can take advantage of many of the features they have to offer. If you have any questions about exporting or creating these rosters, please contact Rapattoni Software Support.