Getting Started With Elliott

Starting Elliott 

After installing Elliott successfully, you are now ready to explore Elliott.  From the Start, Programs, you should see the following six icons under the “NETcellent” Programs window.

Digitally Signed EL700*.exe

All Elliott EXE files are digitally signed by Netcellent System, Inc.  Starting with Windows XP SP2, users who run Elliott from a mapped network drive might be prompted with a security warning asking if they want to “run this software.”  In the past, the prompt would show the manufacturer as “Unknown.” 

The digital signature by Netcellent does not prevent the prompt from showing up.  Rather, the prompt will simply show the software manufacturer as Netcellent System, Inc., so you can trust to execute the program.  To stop this message from showing up, you will need to add the mapped drive server to your trusted Local Intranet zone (in Internet Explorer, choose Tools -> Internet Options -> Security tab).

Configuration Utility

If this is the first time you have started Elliott, the system will detect that the ELLIOTT7.CFG file does not exist in your startup directory.  Therefore, the ELLIOTT Configuration utility will start up automatically.  Alternatively, you can click on the ELLIOTT Configuration icon first.  Once you are done with the configuration, click on the Elliott V7 icon to start the program.

If system does not startup the configuration utility and kicks you out of Elliott, try to configure this manually by choosing the configuration icon before you attempt to start Elliott.

Elliott Root Directory:

This is the root directory where you installed Elliott.

Software Version: 

Select the current software version.  Currently there is only one choice and there is no maintenance here.

Default Printer Port: 

This is to specify the default LPT port for the “Raw Data Pass Through” feature.  You should leave it at “LPT1” unless you have a special reason to change it.

Country:

The Canadian version is different from the US version.  Make sure you are using the right country.

Use Windows Printer By Default?

We suggest you check this field and use Windows printer drivers by default.  The only time you may want to uncheck this box is when you are using mostly dot matrix printers in your organization.  Windows printer drivers are usually not efficient when printing to dot matrix printers.

Multiple Company? 

Please indicate whether you are using the multiple company option or not.

The following two options were eliminated in Version 7.2:

•     Use Btrieve Client Engine? 

•     Use Btrieve Requester (Server Engine)? 

Support Segmented Keys through DDF?

This flag, by default, will be checked and you can’t turn it off through the configuration utility.  The system will look for DDF files in the target directory’s DDF subdirectory, (\ELLIOTT7\DDF).  When the system tries to initialize a file, it will attempt to create the segmented key structure as specified in the DDF definition.  This is the key to supporting ODBC and many third party tools that can access a Pervasive SQL Database (Version 2000 and higher).  If you need to turn off this flag for whatever reason, you will need to edit the EL700.CFG file manually.

Report:

If you click on this button, another window will display and let you configure the default print layout for all users.  Users still have the option to override this default setting at the time of actual printing.  This includes report header shading, bold face, line separator between heading and body, etc.  This option will work well and produce professional outputs on laser printers.  However, it may slow the printing of reports on dot matrix printers.

Display: 

This is for changing the screen update interval.  By default, the Elliott screen updates for every 50 display actions or when there is an input field or condition that is waiting for a keystroke.  For example, in customer file maintenance, Elliott displays all literals at one time instead of individually.  This is for performance purposes.  Sometimes, from a developer’s standpoint, when you animate a program and do not see updates as the action is taking place, it can be confusing.  This is one reason you may wish to change the default setting from 50 to maybe 1.

By default, the Elliott Configuration icon will only be installed on the first workstation installing Elliott from media.  If you do need to run the Elliott Configuration utility from other workstations, you may go to the DOS prompt at a Windows 98/NT/2000/XP workstation and from the Elliott startup directory, type: EL700.CFG.   You can also setup EL700.CFG as a shortcut manually on your workstation by specifying EL700.CFG.EXE as the startup command and F:\ELLIOTT7 as the startup directory.

Once you are done with this setup screen, click OK.  The V7 ELLIOTT startup screen and login will appear like the following:

User Login

By default passwords are in the off mode and there is only one user, SUPERVISOR.  Here, click on the “OK” button to bypass the login process. 

Assign A Unique Workstation ID

Once you pass the login screen and the system detects this is the first time this workstation is using Elliott because (1) the system can’t find the NSI.INI file under C:\WINDOWS if this is an upgrade from a previous version; or (2) the system can’t find the Elliott V7 registry setting in the HKEY_CURRENT_USER area.  The system will then automatically create the Elliott V7 registry setting either by copying the settings from the NSI.INI file or by using the default value and prompting the user to identify a workstation ID for this workstation:

The workstation ID, by default, will be your login user name.  However, you can override it.  Workstation ID is a 10-digit alphanumeric field and you can choose any name you like, but you must make sure that your workstation ID is unique on the network (among all users that may access Elliott).  Having duplicate workstation IDs may result in printing problems in the future.  Therefore, it may be a good idea to use your machine name (NetBIOS name) as the workstation ID.  Once you setup the workstation ID, you can only change it through editing the registry (dangerous) or login as SUPERVISOR and change it through the preference setup toolbar icon.

Multiple Company Option

If you are using the “Multiple Company” option during the configuration screen, then you will be prompted to select the company to access:

Main Menu Screen

If you did not choose the “Multiple Company” option, then the system will use company 01 and directly bring up your Elliott Main Menu.  You are now ready to explore the system.

Startup Elliott Menu  - Second Time

The first time you start Elliott, the system will prompt you to setup the ELL700.CFG (Global) and Elliott Registry in HKEY_CURRENT_USER area (Local).  When you start ELLIOTT for the second time, since they are already setup, the system will not prompt you to setup this information again.

When you setup Elliott on another workstation and since the Elliott registry has not been setup in the HKEY_CURRENT_USER area yet, the system will prompt you for the workstation id.

ELL700.CFG File

The EL700.CFG file resides in your Elliott startup directory and its value can be maintained through the Elliott Configuration Utility (EL700CF.EXE).  Values in the EL700.CFG file control the Elliott global functions and affects all workstations’ operations.

Elliott Registry Setting

The Elliott Registry Setting is stored under the HKEY_CURRENT_USER area under the following path:

            HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\NETcellent\Elliott\7.0

Most of the values in the Elliott registry can be maintained through the “Setup Preference” toolbar button (or Ctrl-S).  If you make changes to the Elliott registry, it will only affect this particular workstation.  The types of flags you can change are:

Set up your favorite colors for Elliott.

Determine which fonts are available to use.

Determine your Laser Printer Paper Margin.

Determine whether to turn on auto skip or not.

Determine the number of local parallel ports (for capturing to a network).

Select your preferred editor for Macro editing and viewing spooled reports.

Define default paths for Macro, Help, Wave and Log files.

Change your diagnostic options.

Setup your tickler function for Elliott users.

The following control flags in registry can’t be changed through the preference setup toolbar option.  If you need to change it, change the Elliott 7.0 registry setting in the following path:

\Configuration\Use-Macro: You may decide not to let certain users access the Macro function by setting this field to “No”.

\Configuration\Use-Preference: You may decide not to let certain users access the “Setup Preference” function by setting this field to “No”.

\Configuration\Workstation: This is the unique workstation id for this PC.  Having duplicate workstation IDs may cause printing problems.  If you accidentally assign duplicate workstation IDs, then you must manually change it with an editor.

Please be warned that changing a registry setting is a dangerous operation.  If you delete or change the wrong registry setting, you might render your system inoperable.