Write Stuff File Link Feature

by Dick Estel

Most good Commodore word processors have a file linking feature, because of the relatively small file
sizes permitted.

If your efforts are confined to the traditional letter to Aunt Martha or a brief article for the newsletter,
you may have no use for this feature. But if you are writing the Great American Novel, or a lengthy term
paper, file linking can simplify your life when it comes time to print out your masterpiece.

TWS 64 allows about 21,000 bytes in a file, roughly equivalent to 5 pages of text. The 128 version
offers considerably more memory, over 62,000 bytes. When your file exceeds these limits, you must
break it into two or more files.

Simply put, the linking feature allows you to tell the computer, "when you finish printing this file, load
and print another one." This is accomplished by placing a reverse l (lower case "L") at the end of your
text, followed by a colon and the file name. It appears that you must use the standard TWS leading
hyphen in your file name for this feature to work. The exact format is:

l:-newfile (but the  l  is reversed)

Once the first file finishes printing, a file named "newfile" will be loaded and printed. Be sure you have
saved your original file first, since loading the new one will erase the original from memory. You must
also be sure you have saved your second file with the exact file name that you specify. The file linking
command should be at the beginning of a new line, immediately following the end of your text.

If you are using headers or footers, they will appear correctly in the second and subsequent files. Page
numbering, if used, will continue correctly in the new files. This feature makes it simple to print out a
very long document without having to stop and load additional files.

When you send the command to print (either to screen or printer), you will see the following on your
screen:  

            ?   Yes   No

The Yes will be flashing. To print the second file, just press [RETURN]. If you cursor to No and press
[RETURN] only the first file will be printed.