UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

The datafiles are somewhere, and they have a name. (Sometimes the name can tell a little about the type of file and how it is written.)

Does the software tell you at a menu or someplace where your data is and the filenames? Otherwise, you are going to have to hunt through this.

You should have access to commands such as:
dir or ls -- either will give a directory listing
cd -- this is how you move around, as in cd newdirectory

How familiar are you with unix commands?
Is the computer connected to the internet in any way - to move files and/or allow remote access?

I've used this unix system for 2 yrs. I know a few old dbase commands. have found directory but scroll lock doesn't work for that computer & can't get directory to print. dir I use is usr2/meddata. I need the patient demographics info.

ls -l >flist.txt

redirects the output to a file
then

cat flist.txt

that way, you can see the files
from there, to print

lp flist.txt

assuming that you have a default printer specified

doesn't work. Says not found.

cat flist.txt

does not work?

what happens if you ls flist.txt -- the file should be there

Also, I private messaged you so that we may take this conversation off-line. Check your PM's. (Top right area of these screens)

Medical Manager (through V9) uses a fixed length CSV text based internal file format. The patient demographics are stored in the "PATFILE.dat". This file, "patfile.dat" can be copied (must use a copy or you will destroy the Medical Manager Database). The "patfile.dat" file should be renamed to "patfile.csv". Using excel you can directly import the file. Just double click on it. If over 65K records then use ACCESS or any program that can import CSV files. After that it is simple to export the patient data. It is text, just delete the columns that uyou do not want to export then export in CSV format. The file is in CSV format internally. Example:
"LastName","FirstName",12345,...,...., LF. just "space padded on the right" to fixed length as shown.
Good luck!