Hi, as most of you know I've just released Vols. 1 & 2 of Paine's Biography
on diskette.  The text has been entered in WordPerfect 5.1 format.  (If
someone wants DOS format I use the export feature of WP.)  I have a question
about these formats.  When I load in the complete 900+ pages in WP 5.1
format
and do a scan from top to  bottom of all the pages, it takes my laptop about
10 minutes.  I have not tried it in straight DOS format nor have I used an
indexing program on the text.   Taylor Roberts has suggested that I might
consider placing each of the chapters in a separate file.  In this manner
the
user could load as many or as few as desired and search only that portion of
the text.  This would cut down on the search time.  The disadvantage is that
there would be a large number of files and if the complete document were
wanted it would have to be expanded through a "master document" file.  This
large number of files could be cumbersome I believe.  Would you let me know
how you work with files this large and/or your suggestions as to how to
divide up this text.  I would like to put something out that is of benefit
to
everyone.

Thanks

Jerry O'Brien