Naming the format file
tabcon has default settings built into it, and if these are satisfactory you need not use a format file at all. If you want a different layout for some tables, or you want to include more or different information about each table, you need to create a format file. If you call the file tc.def and create it in one of a list of directories that tabcon searches automatically, there is no need to name the file on the tabcon command line. Where you create tc.def depends on which tables it applies to:
▪To make all tables of contents look the same (for example, if you have a house style), put the file in the main Quantum include subdirectory:
Windows | %qthome%\include\tc.def |
UNIX | $QTHOME/include/tc.def |
▪If you have a style which you always use for your jobs, put the file in your home directory.
▪If the layout or content is unique to one job, put the file in the project directory.
▪You can also create format files with other names and in other directories. If you create a separate file for each client and put it in, say, your home directory, you can call the file for a client by naming it on the tabcon command line by using –f. For example:
tabcon -f $HOME/tc.ben -o tofc
tabcon always searches for format files in this order:
1 Internal defaults
2 Main Quantum include directory
3 Your home directory
4 Project directory
5 File named with –f
tabcon reports the names of the format files it has used and the order in which it has used them as it runs.
In the example below, tabcon has used the installation format file and the project format file only:
Tabcon stage 1, version 9.1
Created Tue Oct 27 11:49:20 GMT 1992
Using formats from formatfile /qtime/v5d.1/include/tc.def
Using formats from formatfile tc.def
No errors found in formatfiles
Tabcon stage 2, version 9.1
Created Tue Oct 27 11:49:20 GMT 1992 |
Sometimes a file at a lower level overrides the same file at a higher level; sometimes, the information in the lower level file is additional to that in the same file at the higher level.
The table below shows what to expect for each format statement:
a | New keywords at lower levels are additional to those at higher levels. If the same keyword is present with different values at different levels, the lowest level overrides the higher levels. |
tt | Lowest level is additional to higher levels. |
ord | Lowest level overrides higher levels. |
sel | Lowest level overrides higher levels. |