If you have tried to create UIM source using SEU, you know how tedious it can be. SEU will not wrap text lines, the cut and paste facility is primitive, and there's no spell checker. You can make your life easier if you have a PC word processor with macro capabilities and PC Support/400.

You will need to program macros in your word processor for each UIM tag you use. I keep a chart of the most-used UIM help tags with the assigned macro key listed next to them.

To edit your UIM text, perform the following steps.

1. Get your users to create their own help text. (This step gets them involved and saves you a little work.) Tell them to set the margins at 1 and 80 and to spell check their text.

2. Save the text file as an ASCII or DOS text file. Most word processors have this option.

3. Reopen the text file in your word processor.

4. Use your macros to insert your UIM tags. Your text will wrap automatically, and cutting and pasting is not a problem.

5. Save your file as an ASCII file to a PC Support shared folder to which you have authority. I like to save the document using the name of the target source member (e.g. I:MYFOLDERCRTOI50H).

6. Run the Copy from PC Disk (CPYFRMPCD) command from an AS/400 command line.

For example:

 CPYFRMPCD FROMFLR(MYFOLDER) + TOFILE(MYLIB/QPNLSRC) + FROMDOC(CRTOI50H) 

The CPYFRMPCD command is used to copy your ASCII text file from a shared folder to an AS/400 source file member. All of the translation from ASCII to EBCDIC is done for you.

7. Compile your UIM source.

To maintain your UIM source later, use the Copy to PC Disk (CPYTOPCD) command to copy the source member to your folder. For example:

 CPYTOPCD FROMFILE(MYLIB/QPNLSRC) + TOFLR(MYFOLDER) + FROMMBR(CRTOI50H) 

Then, edit the text file with your PC word processor. For improved word processor performance, you may want to copy the document file from the shared folder to your PC hard drive before you begin editing.