Using the TEP Alumni Database
=============================

This document describes the use of the TEP Alumni Database with EDB, an
Emacs database package.  It is presumed that you know how to use EDB; see
its manual for instructions on doing database operations like moving from
record to record, finding a particular record, editing fields of a record,
sorting records, etc.

* The address consists of several fields

  The address, city, state, and zip are separate fields.  Don't try to just
  type the entire address all at once; use the TAB key to get to the next
  field.

* Automatic updating of contact date and old address and phone fields

  Whenever a database record is edited, the "contact date" field is set
  to the current date.

  When any of the residence fields (home-address, home-city, home-state, or
  home-zip) are edited, the user is queried whether to set all four old
  residence fields are set to the previous values of the residence fields.
  So, for instance, if the home address is
		253 Commonwealth Avenue
		Boston, MA 02115
  and the old home address is
		123 Boring Street
		Smallville, USA 00000
  and we edit the home-zip field from 02115 to 02116, and answer "y" to the
  "Move previous home address to old-address fields?" question, then the
  new home address will be
		253 Commonwealth Avenue
		Boston, MA 02116
  and the old home address will become
		253 Commonwealth Avenue
		Boston, MA 02115
  The Smallville address has been lost.  It should be obvious when to
  answer "y" and when to answer "n" to the question.

  Similar mechanisms are in place for the home phone number (which is
  separately managed because it and the address may change independently)
  and for the business address and phone number.

  Having fields automatically updated is is a good feature when the address
  is really changing, since it means you don't have to set the old address
  fields by hand.  It is a nuisance when you are just fixing typos.  In
  order to defeat these mechanisms, do
	M-x tep-fix-typo
  No fields will be automatically updated after you run this command.
  Alternately (and more simply), just answer "n" to the questions as
  they're asked.

* Making reports

  You can use the commands
    M-x tep-address-report
    M-x tep-year-report
    M-x tep-firstname-report
    M-x tep-nickname-report
  to create files such as "address-report.out" in the /Alumni/Database/Reports
  directory.  You can use these files directly, or typeset them by running the
  LaTeX program; from the command line, say
    latex address-report.tex
  to create the file address-report.dvi, which you can print by doing
    lpr -d address-report.dvi
  You can use
    M-x tep-all-reports
  to create all the .out files, but you'll still have to run LaTeX on them,
  and print them, one at a time.

* Making labels

  Use M-x tep-labels to create mailing labels.  This creates a buffer named
  *TEP labels* which contains the preferred mailing address of each
  alumnus.  You'll want to save this buffer to a file.  On athena, the
  filename should have an extension (contain a period in the name).

  To create a *TEP labels* buffer with only Massachusetts alumni, ordered
  by class year, do M-x tep-local-labels.

  If you have access to the "Midnight macros" for TeX, you can process this
  file by running TeX on the file make-labels.tex; from the Unix command line:
    tex make-labels
  and then printing the resulting file:
    lpr -d make-labels.dvi
  If you're on athena, then, you need to be using the SIPB TeX macros; do
    setenv TEXINPUTS .:/mit/sipb/lib/tex/macros
  in your .login.  The file make-labels.tex can be found at the end of
  leber-db.dba if you don't have it already.  (On athena, see the Reports 
  directory.)

  If the top line on each page gets cut off by your printer, change the
  line in make-labels.tex that looks like
    \vfirst=0pt
  to
    \vfirst=5pt
  You can play with the parameter value to get it right; there are 72 pts
  in an inch.