There are two utilities that are included with your PCBoard package to modify or report the contents of a PCBTEXT file. If you have defined multiple languages on your system, you will have more than one PCBTEXT file. The MKPCBTXT utility is used to edit or create a PCBTEXT file, while RDPCBTXT is used to output the contents of a PCBTEXT file to an ASCII file.

PCBoard stores virtually all of the text it displays during program operation in a file called PCBTEXT which is normally located in the \PCB\GEN location on your hard disk. The reason for placing all program text in a separate file is so that the SysOp can alter the default program displays, and also to provide support for multilingual versions of PCBoard. The program used to maintain the main PCBTEXT file, as well as any additional 'language' PCBTEXT files, is MKPCBTXT.EXE.

The MKPCBTXT.EXE program will be found in the same directory that you installed PCBoard to. To run the program, enter MKPCBTXT at the DOS command prompt. After loading, the following screen will appear:

  MKPCBTXT [filename] /I:[recnum] "new text for the record"

If you do not specify the PCBTEXT file to edit on the command line, you will be prompted to enter the file you wish to edit. In the field at the top of the screen, enter the name of the PCBTEXT file that you wish to edit. Your PCBTEXT files will be stored in the subdirectory specified by PCBSetup | File Locations | System Files. Once a PCBTEXT file has been selected for editing, your screen will resemble the following:

When a record is displayed on the screen, you will see the following:

On this screen, you will notice a “header” at the top of the record that shows some useful information about the record. You cannot edit this information. The following briefly describes each piece of information:

Record No	Displays the number of the record you are editing.
Record Length	Displays the maximum length of the record.
Justification	Displays the type of justification that the field
                uses:  Left, Center, or Right

To edit a record, start typing text. The edit field is the one that is highlighted on your screen. You can change the text in the field to say anything that you deem appropriate. When you exit the program, your changes will be saved to the file automatically.

When editing a record, there are two special characters that you can enter in the highlighted field. The following describes each character:

Sometimes you need to be able to enter more text than the edit field allows you to enter. In this case, you will want to replace the record and display a text file instead. In order to accomplish this, enter a % as the first character followed by the filename that you want to display.

For example, to replace record number 116 so that it gives a more thorough explanation of why the time has been adjusted, you would go to that record using F3. Once at the record, clear the entire field by pressing CTRL-End.
Once the field is clear, begin by typing % followed by C:\PCB\GEN\EVENT.
Your record would now resemble the following:

Whenever the your time has been adjusted for our event message would normally be shown, the contents of the file C:\PCB\GEN\EVENT is displayed instead.
Because PCBoard is displaying the file, you can also create security, graphics, and language specific versions of the file.

NOTE: Not all PCBTEXT records can be replaced with files. As a general rule, any record that PCBoard has to build (place text in the record as it displays) will not be able to support replacement.

Replacing a record to use a PPE is very similar to using a text file as a replacement. The only difference is that instead of beginning the line with a %, begin the line with an ! (exclamation point).

For example, to replace record number 116 so that it uses a PPE, go to that record using F3. Once at the record, clear the entire field by pressing CTRL-End. Once the field is clear, begin by typing ! followed by C:\PCB\GEN\EVENT.PPE. Your record would now resemble the following:

Whenever the your time has been adjusted for our event message would normally be shown, the C:\PCB\GEN\EVENT.PPE file will be executed instead.

NOTE: Not all PCBTEXT records can be replaced with PPE files. As a general rule, any record that PCBoard has to build (place text in the record as it displays) will not be able to support replacement.

Replacing a record to use a MNU is very similar to using a text file or PPE file as a replacement. The only difference is that instead of beginning the line with a % or !, begin the line with an $.

For example, to replace record number 1 so that it uses a MNU, go to that record using F3. Once at the record, clear the entire field by pressing CTRL-End. Once the field is clear, begin by typing $ followed by C:\PCB\GEN\COMMENT.MNU. Your record would now resemble the example on the following page.

Whenever the leave a comment for the sysop message would normally be shown, the C:\PCB\GEN\COMMENT.MNU file will be used instead.

NOTE: Not all PCBTEXT records can be replaced with menu files. As a general rule, any record that PCBoard has to build (place text in the record as it displays) will not be able to support replacement.

This utility is designed to output each record in a PCBTEXT file into a single text file. Using the text file you can quickly and easily find the record number you wish to edit. The filename that is created will be in the current subdirectory and named PCBTEXT.LST.

  RDPCBTXT [filename]

[filename] Specifies the PCBTEXT file that you would like to convert into ASCII text. If the file is found, the ASCII version of the specified file will be output as PCBTEXT.LST in the current subdirectory.|

The report that is generated by RDPCBTXT is output in the following format:

2 3 PCBoard Serial No. (if any)
3 1 Access Denied - Upcoming Event Pending ...

The first column shows the record number. The second number in this report shows the default color number of the prompt. You cannot change the default color – it is printed for reference purposes only.