TECH: STAR Mac hint...

[Chris Hart <hartc@OSCEOLA.K12.FL.US>]

Well I don't know if "hint" is the right word to use, but my thesaurus was
not handy at the time.  We just got our Macintosh ver 1.0 of STAR the other
day and I was playing around with it at home trying to make life easy for
myself.  I was working with the import function of the program, because I
sure don't want to have to type in 1700+ students into it.  I kept having
problems getting it to import the data from the Estimated Reading Level on
(ie. this includes ERL, gender, and race).  I did exactly what it said in
the manual p. 72(ie. 1=Female and 2=Male, 1=Asian, 2=Black, etc.), but it
still would not work.  So I called and used my "Enhanced Support Plan" and
got the answer.  I must say that the STAR people were very helpfull and
called me right back.  I guess the thing I don't understand, is why they
don't print some type of addendum to the manual that tells you what you
really have to do.  Hopefully they will in future ones which are sent out.

Here is my senario.  We use the Follett Unison (ie. DOS) platform for our
circulation system.  I exported all of my patrons to a disc.  Took the disc
to my MAC, and imported the users into my Filemaker Pro database so that I
could manipulate the data into the right order, and then exported all of
the patrons back out to a comma del. text file.  In order for this to work,
though I found out from STAR you must have the following line below (ie.
"Star 1.0....) for it to work.  The first line in the example below must be
typed exactly as shown.  It is case sensitive.  Once you have this line at
the top (ie. header) of your text file, your ERL, gender, and race should
import just fine.

"Star 1.0 Student Export",,,1
Jane,Doe,123456,Smith,J.,9,ENG1,123456,9,1,5
John,Doe,654321,Smith,J.,9,ENG1,654321,9,2,5

Note:  I can't tell you if it is needed for the Dos/Windows version,
because I don't have any experience with it.  If you happen to own a copy
of Filemaker Pro, but can't figure out how to manipulate your data from
your Follett system (ie. Mac or Dos), I'll be more than glad to help.  Just
email me:-)  Hope this saves somebody out there some time and energy.

Chris Hart
Library Information Specialist
Poinciana High School
Kissimmee, FL
PHS Webmaster: http://www.phs.osceola.k12.fl.us
FAME Co-Webmaster: http://www.firn.edu/fame/
Email: hartc@osceola.k12.fl.us

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*                                                                       *
*  Chris Hart                           Wk#:(407) 870-4860 ext. 233     *
*  Library Information Specialist       FAX#(407) 870-0382              *
*  Poinciana High School                Email: hartc@osceola.k12.fl.us  *
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*  Kissimmee, FL  34758                                                 *
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