nfoToDoc
(updated 10/04/00)

Introduction
nfoToDoc is a Microsoft Windows based utility to create CDR covers from .NFO and .TXT files. NFO (info) files are used by the Grateful Dead (and Phish and others) CDR trading community to document the lineage and track listing for shows. An info file is a plain vanilla text file with no special formatting. Info files normally accompany electronic distribution of the CD tracks. Many traders, myself included, keep these files and use them for CDR record keeping.

A sample NFO file can be found here ->gd740324.txt.

Download Information
You can download nfoToDoc by clicking the link below:
 

setup.exe

3,586kb

nfoToDoc Version 0.5 10/04/00

I apologize for the download size. But this is a quick app I wrote to address a problem I encountered. I wrote the app with Visual Basic 6.0 SP3 and the run-time files bloat the distribution quite a bit. The setup program is written with Wise InstallBuilder 8.1 using the default options. InstallBuilder pulls in all the runtime files *it* thinks the app needs.

I could probably build my own distribution that trims the file size down, but I don't have that kind of time.

How Does It Work?
In short, nfoToDoc parses out the various bits of useful data contained in the NFO file then merges the data into a Microsoft Word 2000 template. The merge operation is performed using OLE Automation. OLE Automation allows developers to programatically control Microsoft applications "under the hood."

The following fields are parsed out and placed in the CDR cover template:

band, venue, date, city, state, source and lineage, number of discs, tracks per disk, track titles, track times, notes

The software can also, optionally, add "From the collection of Joe the 'Head" and CDR cover creation date strings.

System Requirements
nfoToDoc is a small program written with Visual Basic 6.0 and has the following system requirements:

This software has not been tested with Word 97 and I highly doubt it will work. I don't have Word 97 on any of my machines at work or home, so it is highly unlikely that I will produce a version of this app to work with Word 97. Sorry.

Terms of Use
nfoToDoc is my gift to the Grateful Dead trading community. I developed this in my spare time out of a desire to automate what can be a very manual task. We all like nice CDR covers, but they take time to create. So this is what I came up with. I do plan to improve it from time to time based on input from the community. Send comments to helpdesk-nospam-@loseyourmind.com. (you need to despam the email address).

Standard disclaimer - Use of this software is at your own risk. I can take no responsability for any harm done to your computer, OS, data, etc. I will try to address questions as needed, but there is no guarantee of support for this software. End of rant.

Running nfoToDoc, a short tutorial
First you need to download and install the software. I'm sure you have all done this. The download link is at the bottom of this page. Install it and start the software using your Windows Start menu.

These screen shots are a bit small, so click them to zoom in.

		nfoToDoc looks like a simple text editor with side by side windows. The left window is your input NFO/TXT file. The right window shows you the details of the parsing. To open an NFO file, select Open NFO File from the File menu.
		When you open the file, nfoToDoc takes its best shot at parsing out the file. Because NFO files have no standard structure, the parsing is not 100% perfect. Because of this fact, the results of the parse operation are exposed in the right hand window. nfoToDoc uses XML as an intermediate format. I then pull data from the XML stream and build the CDR cover. However, we will most likely have to tweak the NFO file manually to make sure the parser pulls out everything.
		Each time you make a change to the NFO file, nfoToDoc starts up the parser. Most of the time, the parser will get the band, date and track listing correct. It has difficulty with venue, city, state and notes. It will also not do well if the disk sections are not labeled with "Disc 1", "D1", etc. In the screen shot at the left, I have manually entered in BAND, DATE, VENUE, CITY and STATE tags. The parser immediately picks these up and the results are reflected in the right hand window. Tags that nfoToDoc looks for: BAND, DATE, VENUE, CITY, STATE, NOTES, SOURCE, DISC1, DISC2, DISC3, DISC4. nfoToDoc will choke on very poorly formatted files. And nfoToDoc can only parses data for up to 4 CDs.
		To create your CDR cover, select "Make CDR Cover va Word" from the File menu. From the drop down listbox, you can select which template to use. (Word templates are stored in the "template" folder). You can also optionally add the "From the collection of" text to your CDR cover. When you are ready, click the "OK" button and watch as the information is filled in the template file with Microsoft Word.
		The CDR Cover is now done. The last thing to do is save it using Word's Save As command. Make sure you use SAVE AS when you save the file in Word. If you use Save, you will overwrite the template file!!! If you overwrite your template files, just reinstall the software to restore them. end.