halFILE For DOS FAQ


Question 1: What is the fastest way to scan in a large number of documents?

Answer: Use WORKFLOW-SCAN-BATCH-MANY ONE-SIDED DOCUMENTS to scan the documents. Then before saving the batch, take the 'split' option to separate the batch into multi-page documents.


Question 2: I use WORKFLOW-SCAN-BATCH to scan multiple pages and need to use the flatbed because some of the documents are torn or some of the information at the edge of the page is not scanned when using the Automatic Document Feeder (ADF). What should I do?

Answer: By definition, the multi-page scan uses the ADF. Make a good copy of the problem pages so they can be fed through the scanner's ADF normally.


Question 3: I have scanned and saved a batch of documents but now do not wish to keep them. How do I get rid of them?

Answer: You can do this two different ways:

A. You can begin INDEX-CONTINUOUS and as each page comes up, take the 'discard' option from the save menu.

Or

B. You can go into WORKFLOW-MANAGE-QUEUE and, if those are the only entries in the queue, clear the queue and answer 'Y' to the question about deleting the image file. If there are other entries in the queue that you need to keep, then you can take the Update selection and change the status for the range of document numbers from SCAN COMPLETE to AVAILABLE. You would then have to go down to DOS and delete the related image files.


Question 4: When I do a directory on my optical disk cartridge, it says I have 30 MB of free space, but when I archive, it fails. Why is this?

Answer: Many optical disk drivers do not exactly calculate the amount of overhead used to maintain the directories for a cartridge. As more and more files are added to a cartridge, the actual space on the cartridge is not what is reported to DOS. Normally, there is a utility that you can periodically run against a cartridge to correct this problem. For COREL optical disk drivers, this utility is CHKMEDIA.


Question 5: I retrieve an image and it tells me the cartridge is not on-line even though my optical disk server is up.

Answer: Make sure you bring up the optical disk server BEFORE you enter halFILE. If this is not the case, re-enter halFILE to correct the problem. If that still doesn't work, go to DOS and use the directory command to locate the optical disk drive that has been set up and make sure it can be seen by the work station.


Question 6: I retrieve a document and, when the image should be displayed, I hear a beep and the screen goes blank. It seems to be locked up at this point.

Answer: This appears to be a memory problem and pressing the ESC key may return you to halFILE. Check the amount of base memory (lower 640K) available on the workstation. It must be at least 500K and, preferably, 530K or more. If this is not the problem, make sure the workstation has access to HALICR.EXE for large monitors or HALVGA.EXE for VGA monitors. Finally, make sure that the temporary and ram drives are set properly to ensure that the other workstations do not share the same space for these two drives.


Question 7: I ran archive and nothing was copied to the optical disk because it was full. Now all the entries in the queue say 'ARCHIVE IN PROGRESS'. How can I archive these images to another cartridge?

Answer: Use WORKFLOW-MANAGE-QUEUE-UPDATE to change the status of the documents in question from ARCHIVE IN PROGRESS to INDEX COMPLETE and try again. Try to avoid this problem by taking the estimate option within ARCHIVE- CONTINUOUS before you begin the archive and verify that there is enough space on the cartridge.


Question 8: How do you set up a new cartridge for halFILE?

Answer: This is a 2-step process. The first step is to format the cartridge and depends on the type of cartridge it is and what platform you are using to place optical disks onto your computer system. For optical disk drives that use COREL drivers, use the CFORMAT utility to format the cartridge. For SCSI Express, format a new cartridge from the Netware 3.11 server console by loading 'INSTALL' and defining a new disk drive.

The second part of defining a new cartridge involves giving the cartridge a name that HALFILE will recognize. Use UPDATE-MEDIA to assign the name and let it initialize the cartridge. This initialize step simply copies a file called OPTICAL.HAL to the cartridge. This file contains the name of the cartridge. If you have already used UPDATE-MEDIA but did not take the initialize option, then you must manually build OPTICAL.HAL in the root directory of the cartridge using a text editor or the following copy command:

COPY CON d:OPTICAL.HAL (where d: is the drive containing the new cartridge

cart1a (where 'cart1a' is the name of the cartridge)

CTRL-Z (closes out the copy)


Question 9: I split some images incorrectly and now need to move images from one document to a new document.

Answer: Run SPECIAL-MOVE-TRANSFER. Indicate the original image # from which the images should be copied, then mark the beginning and ending pages to transfer. The marked pages can be appended onto another existing document or can be placed in a new document. If you copy them to a new document, you need to retrieve the new document and update the information since it is copied from the old document. Note that this transfer will not move images from one folder or cartridge to another.


Question 10: How do I upgrade to halFILE for Windows?

Answer: We have upgraded many clients from halFILE for DOS to halFILE for Windows. You need to purchase the upgrade from your sales representative and then our technical support staff will coordinate the installation and the conversion of your databases. We also strongly suggest that you purchase one or two days of training on the Windows system.

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