These free downloads are provided as-they-are without support. (We guarantee only that they're virus-free.) Many of them include basic instructions. In the case of Q&A databases, we  assume you're knowledgeable enough to understand and modify the design and programming to accommodate your own needs, paths and Q&A configuration.       Where pertinent, we cite the the article or tip from The Quick Answer where the particular database or utility was reviewed. You can purchase that issue if you don't have it. See the Back Issue Index.

	Utilities & Miscellaneous Files (Click here to go to Databases)
	PKUnzip.exe Don't leave home without it! "Industry standard" utility that unzips the zip files (files with a *.ZIP filename extension) downloaded from this or any Web site. This link takes you to PKWare's home page where you can download PKZip, which includes PKUnzip.
	Adobe Acrobat Reader You need Adobe Acrobat Reader to view and print the electronic (Online) edition of The Quick Answer, including the free sample issue (farther down this page). This link takes you to the Adobe Web site's Acrobat Reader page. The file is 6M and takes about 20 minutes to download. Be sure you select the version of Acrobat Reader for your operating system. Tips on using Acrobat Reader.
	Instant Messaging Across Your Network This handy little utility program was developed in the Netherlands by a company with heavy Q&A usage. It lets users on a network send "instant messages" to one another, even from inside Q&A for DOS! Installation requires copying just two files (both included in the zipped download file) into a shared network directory, then setting up each user's computer so that the program (CHECK_V2) can identify which computer is sending and receiving a message. No documentation comes with this program. Essential setup and usage details are covered in  the March 2002 issue of The Quick Answer, which you can order for $9 using our online order form. Terrific little program that takes the place of intercoms and sneakernets. Windows 95 or later required. You can contact the program's author, Kees Steenbergen at steenber@tref.nl, if you have any questions about installation or operation that aren't covered in the article.
	Y2KTEST Tells You If Your PC is Ready for the 21st Century This easy-to-use shareware utility runs a brief test on your computer's BIOS to determine if it's Year-2000 compliant and, if not, if a software fix can make it so. See the README.TXT file before using the utility, and be sure to run the utility from a DOS prompt outside of Windows. Q&A and the Year 2000
	Y2K Fix Corrects Q&A 21st Century File Date Problem in Q&A DOS After the turn of the century, all versions of Q&A DOS will display erroneous file date characters for files created, modified (or accessed, in the case of databases) after December 31, 1999. You'll see these erroneous characters at Q&A's List Manager (File Manager) screens. This patch (Y2KFIXENG.ZIP) fixes the problem in all versions. The Patch must be run in Windows 95/98/NT even if you don't run Q&A in Windows. Peruse the README file before applying patch. NOTE: THIS PATCH DOES NOT MAKE YOUR Q&A APPLICATIONS YEAR-2000 COMPLIANT. IT FIXES ONLY THE FILEDATE BUG. To make your Q&A applications Y2K compliant overall, see Q&A and the Year 2000
	Latest Q&A for DOS Printer Drivers Can't find a suitable Q&A 4.0 for DOS driver for your newer printer? The more recent (by about four years) Q&A 5.0 printer configuration and font files are entirely compatible with and can be used in Q&A 4.0. One caveat, though. If you have documents, reports, etc. that are "fonted" using the older Q&A 4.0 font files, overwriting those font files with these newer ones might change some of the font names (descriptions), requiring you to reassign those fonts in affected documents. Bottom line? If you are not having problems with your printer in QA 4.0, do not install these newer files. 5PRINTER.TXT (10K) is a plain ASCII text file that describes the printers supported by the newer Q&A 5.0 printer files. QAPRINT.CFG (100K) is the Q&A 5.0 printer configuration file. 5PRINTER.ZIP (529K) contains the Q&A 5.0 font description files. While you're at it, read What About Printer Drivers for Q&A DOS?
	Ideal Screen Font for Q&A DOS Running in a Window With Q&A for DOS in a window, you get a choice of screen fonts. But they all look terrible except one. The one that gives us an ideally-sized Q&A DOS window on our desktop PCs (at 1024x768 or 800x600 display resolution) and notebook PC (at 800x600 resolution) with dark, crisp characters, is the 8514OEM.FON 10x20 font. If your Windows PCs doesn't have this attractive screen font (check your Windows\Fonts folder), copy this one to that folder, then reboot. Put Q&A in a Window and select 10x20 from the Font list on the Q&A window's toolbar. If no joy, be sure Both Types (of fonts) is checked in your Q&A shortcut's Font Properties tab.
	Utility Tells You Which Copy of Q&A 5.0 You're In When you use External Programs or @Shell to launch second or third copies of Q&A, you can quickly become "lost in the copies." QACOUNT.EXE works like a function in that it returns the number of the copy of Q&A you're in. You can use it in a databsase in conjunction with @Msgbox to let the user know which copy they're in and/or with a conditional @Macro to return to the initial copy of Q&A. Details on how to use QACOUNT.EXE are in the April 1997 Quick Answer, page 11.
	Choptext.exe Breaks up Large Text Files Neat little utility that breaks up ASCII files too large for Q&A Write into smaller, more manageable files. Great when you have a big import file you need to view before deciding how best to import it into a Q&A database. (See the October 1994 Quick Answer for optional switches and essential usage instructions.)
	QExtract.exe - Data Extraction Utility Zip file (QEXTRA.EXE) containing QEXTRACT.EXE, a Symantec utility that extracts data, programming , and form designs from damaged Q&A databases. The download file uncompresses to the QEXTRACT.EXE executable file, a readme file, and a batch file to print the instructions. (See the October 1994 Quick Answer for an in-depth discussion and essential usage instructions.)
	Q4Look.exe - Lookup Table Extraction Utility Extracts the Lookup Table from a Q&A database. Gives you options to (1) print the contents of the table to your printer, (2) extract the table's contents to an ASCII file (Standard or Fixed Length) to import into a Q&A database, or (3) extract to a macro format that allows you to "import" the table into another database's Lookup Table. (See the October 1994 Quick Answer for an in-depth discussion and usage instructions.)
	SpeedFix Patch Lets Q&A 5.0 Run on the Fastest Pentiums Q&A 5.0 can have trouble loading on today’s fast Pentium PC’s and we’ve recommended Moslow.com to retard the processor in these machines. (See above.) This July 1998 patch from Q&A 5.0’s creator Andreas Goebel, dubbed Q&A SpeedFix 1.0, updates your Q&A 5.0 QA1.EXE file so there's no need to cripple your PC's processor with Moslow. Windows 95/98/NT is required to run the patch. See also When Q&A Won't Run on a New PC.
	Lesspace.com Solves Problem of "Too Large" a Hard Disk You can run into trouble installing or running Q&A for DOS or Windows on a hard drive partition larger than 1.87GB. (This is not a defect in Q&A.) But if you don’t want to (or can’t) repartition your hard disk (using a program like Partition Magic from PowerQuest), you can use LESSPACE.COM, a tiny (5K) TSR program that tricks DOS programs into believing they're accessing a 500MB drive with up to 500MB free space. Reviewed in the August 1998 Quick Answer. If you like this free version, get the registered version as it will load much faster. (Details are in the Zip file.) Use a batch file to start Lesspace, then Q&A, then unload Lesspace with the /U switch when you exit Q&A. Create a Q&A shortcut in Windows that runs the batch file rather than starting Q&A directly. This is Lesspace version 3.0.
	Moneytxt.exe Converts Dollar Values to Text An executable file you can run via Q&A 5.0's @Shell command to convert money values to their longhand text equivalents for a check-writing application. Converts "$23.55" to "Twenty Three and 55/00" and so forth. (See The Quick Answer, January 1998, p. 3 for the info you'll need to use this utility.) Special thanks to Erika Yoxall http://www.hammerdata.com hammer@apk.net and Cow House Productions http://www.cowhouse.com. (See Checks.dtf in Q&A Databases section for a Q&A 4.0/5.0 database that converts money values to text.)
	Symantec Q&A Tech Bulletins A zip file of some 70 technical bulletins (each in its own ASCII .txt file) written by Symantec Q&A tech support personnel over the years for Q&A 3.0 and 4.0. They cover a whole slew of useful tips, tricks, and techniques, from programming to reports and mail-merge, many that apply to all versions of Q&A.
	Q&A 5.0 Date Bug Patch Patch from Bob Buckland (not from Symantec) fixes Q&A 5.0's date display format bug. (See The Quick Answer March 1997 p.6, and check under Bug in The Quick Answer Topic Index for references to this Q&A 5.0 date display format bug and how to work around it.)
	Sample Issue of The Quick Answer Which one will it be? Who knows? Download a sample issue of The Quick Answer in Adobe Acrobat 3.0 (PDF) format. (This link takes you to the Sample Issue page on this Web site where you can find out about Acrobat Reader and the new Online edition of The Quick Answer.)
	Q&A Error Codes Zipped text file containing "what-do-they-mean"? descriptions of the nasty little messages you hope you never see.
	Q&A 5.0 Application Programming Tools Manual (APTM) Index This separate, smaller manual that comes with Q&A 5.0 covers database programming, macros, and custom menus, yet has no index. Here's a good quality third-party index you can print out and keep in the back of your copy of the APTM. The zip file includes an MS Word version of the index (which you can reformat and reprint as you like) as well as an Adobe Acrobat version.
	About Q&A 5.0 Four ASCII text files in this Zip file cover the new Q&A 5.0 features, including programming commands, interoperability with Q&A for Windows, and more. (See The Quick Answer, August, 1995 for a comprehensive review of Q&A 5.0 with many examples of how the new features work. See also the Q&A 5.0 QuikStart database on the Q&A Databases page.) What you should know about upgrading Q&A 4.0 databases to Q&A 5.0, from the January 1997 Quick Answer. Click here to read.
	Sample Document with Non-Printing Comments If you'd like to add unprintable comments to your documents (such as which customers should receive this merge letter, or the hot-key to press to fax rather than print the document) and you have a LaserJet or LaserJet-compatible printer, this sample Write document shows you how to do it.
	Macro Prevents Second Copy of Word from Starting We often launch a Microsoft Word mail-merge from a Q&A database by starting Word via @Shell and passing the Q&A data to it. We like this Word macro because it prevents a second copy of Word from starting. Simply paste this macro into Word's macro editor (Tools / Macros), and name the macro AutoExec. Works with Word 6 or 7.
	Word Mail Merge Macro and Q&A Database A Q&A 5.0 database and Word macro. The database utilizes @Shell to create, on-the-fly, an export file of the data in the current record, then starts Word with a switch to run a macro. The Word macro creates a "data source" from the export file, then loads a document, prints a mail-merge letter, then returns you to Q&A. Unless you're real handy with Q&A programming and Word macros, you'll need the December 1997 Quick Answer for details.
	Excel Macro and Q&A Database A Q&A 5.0 database and Excel for Windows macro. The database utilizes @Shell to create, on-the-fly, an export file of the data in the current record, then starts Excel with a switch to auto-open a specified worksheet. That worksheet contains an auto-exec macro that imports the Q&A data into the next available row of the worksheet, then asks if you want to stay in the worksheet or return to Q&A. Unless you're real handy with Q&A programming and Word macros, you'll need the December 1997 Quick Answer for details.
	Q&A Databases (next page)

Comments? Looking for something? Write us at inbox@quickanswer.com
Want to submit an article to The Quick Answer? Write to office@quickanswer.com
Phone -  800-780-5474 or 949-722-9127 / Fax - 949-722-9127
Marble Publications, 1927A Harbor Blvd., Costa Mesa, California 92627
Last modified: December 11, 2006