ASCII Transcript Format
In order to successfully index ASCII Transcript files, transcripts must conform to the following standards:
- Documents must be in ASCII with a line length of 75 characters or less.
- Documents should be double-spaced (two CR/LF pairs at each line ending), or single-spaced with the character code 27 (escape) followed by the character 'S' included in the transcript text. Perceptive Search will adapt its paragraph detection logic accordingly.
- Paragraphs should be delimited by three CR/LF's.
- Each line should be line-numbered. Perceptive Search will display line numbers when documents are in the Browser, but will ignore them for the purpose of phrase searching.
- Page breaks should be hard (character code 12).
Perceptive Search provides an escape code facility to set page numbering other than from 1. To specify a non-sequential page number, insert a character code 27 (escape), followed immediately by the new page number at which to start. It is not necessary to number every page, only where the page numbering deviates from sequential order. For example, a transcript file which begins at page 123 could have the character code 27 followed by 123 at the top of the document. The process by which you insert the character code 27 varies for different text editors and word processors. Refer to the manual for your specific editor for information on inserting special characters.
If your transcript lines are not numbered, include the character code 27 (escape) followed by the character 'U' in your transcript text. Perceptive Search will alter its phrase-searching strategy across line boundaries accordingly. To insert special codes into ASCII documents, you can use the DOS Edit facility. Open the document you wish to edit with the Edit command from the DOS prompt.
To begin inserting characters press Ctrl-P then the code you need to use from the following list. Note that for each code you must first press Ctrl-P.
Code | Keystroke | Symbol |
12 | Ctrl-Shift-L |  |
27 | Ctrl-[ |  |