I have read with interest the comments on the Lexis printing
problems, and would like to suggest some alternatives. Fortunately, I was
not in dire need of Lexis at that time, but if I were, I would have tried
any of the following:
Use the print/download to disk feature (this was not mentioned as
part of the failure).
Attempt to Screen capture the cases by either printing screens,
or using a log feature from your software, if possible.
Connect to Lexis via the Internet, and screen capture the text
through the Log function of most good communications software.
If your emulation is set properly, you will get little, if any
extraneous ANSI text to edit. There are cheap shareware ANSI
removers available that do not remove captured text.
All of the above methods are crude and messy and somewhat time consuming.
However, they are effective and take less time than trying to kick a dead
horse. You can then have Mead credit you for the extra online time it
required. If you gotta have it ASAP and no other options exist, you either
do it or go without. Granted, this was unexpected from Lexis, but could
happen with any online service; FN: Murphy's Law, cites too numerous to
mention. I too am surprised that Lexis did not have a backup to put online
in this scenario, and await their explanation. Compared to other services
I have used, Mead has been the most reliable. I hope this is not a
foreshock of things to come.
Michael Spindler
Infopros Research & Consulting
Seattle, WA
mspin@halcyon.com
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : 03/09/00 PST