Appendix VII. Personnel Database Format
The Personnel Database is stored in "Text and Tabs" format. The information is in plain text, and each field is separated by a tab character (ASCII code 9).
Here are two sample rows (or records or lines) from the database. Each row represents one page in the database. The tab characters are shown with the ">" symbol, although the actual tab characters are invisible:
Andrews>Donna>954-753-3071>331>B>AC>>X>>>>>>>>>>2>>1>2>>>>>>>A>>>>>>>BCD>>donna945@bellsouth.net
Aquilino>Fernando>305-726-1234>3451>A>>>X>>>>>>>>>>2>2>2>2>2>>>>>>A>>>>>>>BE>L>fernando456@aol.com
There are 37 columns in each row, and each column contains data for one field in the database.
The columns, in order are:
- Last Name
- First Name
- Phone Number
- Family #
- ID
- Partners
- Alternate Min
- Ministry 1
- Ministry 2
- Ministry 3
- Ministry 4
- Ministry 5
- Ministry 6
- Ministry 7
- Ministry 8
- Ministry 9
- Ministry 10
- Time 1
- Time 2
- Time 3
- Time 4
- Time 5
- Time 6
- Time 7
- Time 8
- Time 9
- Time 10
- Scheduling code & optional suffix
- Unavailable date 1
- Unavailable date 2 (not used as of Ver. 2.1)
- MUST schedule date 1
- MUST schedule date 2 (not used as of Ver. 2.1)
- MUST schedule date 3 (not used as of Ver. 2.1)
- MUST schedule date 4 (not used as of Ver. 2.1)
- Specials categories
- Long Distance ("L" if Long Distance box is checked; blank otherwise)
- E-mail address
If you are using a spreadsheet program, such a Microsoft Excel, to create (or partially create) the database, the first person would be in row 1; the second person would be in row 2, and so on. The last names would be in Column A; the first names in Column B; ...; and the E-mail addresses in Column AK. In Excel, it would look like this:
You can leave as many columns blank as you wish and fill them in later (if needed) using CV-Schedule.
When you are finished, save the file as type "Text (tab delimited)" or "Text and tabs." The filename should be 1-people.db for Data Set 1; 2-people.db for Data Set 2, and so on.
TIP: Back up any existing database files first. Then, if you should accidentally overwrite one of your existing files (all too easy to do!), you will have a saved copy to restore it.