The preference settings affect all datafiles.
The Dialing Preferences window lets you create dialing sets. It also lets you specify a character for bracketing phone numbers, to make it easy for iData 2 to find them.
Dialing Sets
Dialing sets are used to have iData add prefixes and/or suffixes to phone numbers before dialing them. A typical example is that you might have a number, such as 512-555-1234 in a datafile record. Instead of having to type a 1 in front of it before dialing, you can create a dialing set that automatically adds a 1 in front of any number that it is used to dial.
A dialing set consists of three elements:
1. A set name, used strictly for identification purposes. This is how you select the set in the Dial menus.
2. An optional prefix -- consisting of one or more characters to be dialed before the main number.
3. An optional suffix -- consisiting of one or more characters to be dialed after the main number.
iData 2 has one permanent dialing set, Basic, which cannot be deleted. This dialing set does not add either a prefix or a suffix. In other words, it just dials the main number.
Phone Number Bracketing Character
iData 2 has two ways of identifying a phone number to be dialed. The first, which take priority, is highlighted text. If you tell iData to dial the phone, and there is some active highlighted text, that is what iData will send to the modem for dialing.
If there is no active highlighted text, and if you enabled this preference in the following dialog, iData will start scanning the current record, looking for some text starting and ending with the specified character. Once you have picked a bracketing character, you can type it before and after phone number. This is particularly useful in the Freeform Text Area, where it may be hard to spot a phone number in a large block of text--even if you know that it's there.
The Dialing Preference Window
The first time the Dialing preference window is opened, it will look like this:
Creating a New Dialing Set
To create a new dialing set, just type in a meaningful name--one that you can remember a month later--and any desired prefix and/or suffix characters. In addition to numbers, your prefixes and suffixes can include commas (which will cause a 2-second pause), the # (pound sign), * (asterisk), and the letter x.
The letter x will cause a pause dialog to appear, allowing you to wait for a prompt before continuing to dial the number. When you are ready for the next number to be dialed, you just click a button--as explained below. This is useful when you have to dial a prefix and wait for a second dial tone before dialing your main number.
When you are satisfied with your dialing set, click the Add button.
When you click on a dialing set in the list, its name, prefix, and suffix will appear in the text fields below. At that time, you can delete the set by clicking the Remove button. You can also change anything about that set and click the Change button.
iData provides command-D as a keyboard shortcut for dialing. By default, this command key applies to the Basic dialing set, but you can change it to apply to the set that you use the most. All other dialing sets must be selected either from the Dial sub-menu, under the Tools menu, or from the popup menu on the toolbar, as shown below
Here is a typical group of dialing sets (which show up in the above popup menu):
In the above example, you can note the following points:
1. The set names include both a descriptive word or two, and an indication of the set prefix.
2. The two Office sets start with a number 9, used to get an outside line in some offices, followed by the letter x, which will cause a pause sheet to come up and wait for you to click a button before continuing to dial the number.
3. The set to which command-D applies is the usually the Basic set. You can change your default set to the set you use the most. To do so, select the set name in the list and click the Default button. A "D" will appear next to the default set.
Here's what the pause sheet would look like using the Office - 9x set to dial a number:
Once the 9 had been dialed, and a dial tone appeared, clicking the Dial The Next Number Now button would cause iData 2 to dial 555-4569.
This use of the letter x to bring up a pause dialog is referred to as "extension dialing", and there is no limit to how many such number segments can be strung together this way. The "extension dialing" x can be used in prefixes, suffixes and in the phone number itself.
A Real-life Example
As an example of combining bracketing with extension dialing, you might be able to use something like the following to order a prescription from your drugstore:
\555-1234 x 1 x 1 x 1234567890 x 1 x 2 x 555-3456 x 1\
Here's how the dialing of this number might be go (with "the button" used to mean the Dial The Next Number Now button):
1. First iData would dial the drugstore automated prescription line: 555-1234
2. When you hear "To continue in English, press 1", click the button to dial 1
3. When you hear "To order a prescription, press 1", click the button to dial 1
4. When you hear "Please enter your ten-digit prescription number", click the button to dial 1234567890
5. When you hear "The number you entered is 1234567890. If this is correct, press 1", click the button to dial 1
6. When you hear, "If you would like to order more prescriptions, press 1, if not, press 2", click the button to dial 2
7. When you hear, "For verification purposes, please enter your seven-digit phone number", click the button to dial 555-3456
8. When you hear, "You entered 555-3456. If this is correct, press 1", click the button to dial 1.
9. When you hear, "Your prescription will be ready Friday afternoon", hang up.
Except for the precise details, this is something that both members of iData Partners use iData for on a regular basis. iData makes it easy to enter all these details without error. At each step of the way, you will see the number that has just been dialed and the next number to be dialed, so you know exactly where you are in the sequence. At any point, you can also click the Cancel button and take up dialing by hand, or just hang up.
(Note that you may include spaces for clarity. iData will send the space characters to the modem, but the modem will ignore them.)
Find Phone Numbers Bracketed by: If this option is selected, the single character in the text box at the right can be placed on each side of (before and after) phone numbers in your datafiles, and iData then be able to identify them as such. (Otherwise, you will have to highlight a number in order to get iData to dial it.) The default, as shown, is the \ (backslash). You should select a character that isn't likely to occur in pairs in your datafile content.
For example, if you were using the backslash as your bracketing character, you might have a block of freeform text like the following:
Be sure to call Bob at \555-3443\ before 5:00 pm, or at \555-5698\ after that.
In this case, you could have iData dial either of these numbers by clicking a bit in front of it before dialing.
