RTF files

You have been directed to this web page by an email from your schedule administrator. This page contains detailed information about your schedule which was sent to you as an RTF (Rich Text Format) file.

Overview

EPSKED, the emergency physician scheduling program, can send schedules and schedule summaries as email attachments using several formats, including RTF (Rich Text Format) files. RTF is a format that can be opened and edited in Microsoft Word, Microsoft WordPad, and most other word processors. This format offers:

1. A printed document that is nearly indistinguishable from one printed directly from EPSKED.
2. The ability to edit the schedule, allowing schedule changes and the addition of other information (highlighting, telephone numbers).
3. RTF format printing, import, and export (supported by most word processors), making it a common format between otherwise incompatible word processors. Editing and printing of RTF files is easily accomplished using the free Microsoft WordPad, which has been included with most PC operating systems since Windows 95. On the Mac OS X, the default editor, TextEdit, can also view and edit RTF files.

Viewing your schedules

To display the schedule sent to you by your schedule administrator, try simply opening the email attachment from your email program. If you can view the schedule clearly, then you do not need to read this section.

If you don't know how to open attached files from your email program: The procedure for opening email attachment files varies between different email programs. If you are unsure, try simply double clicking on the name of the file attachment or its associated icon if either of these is shown. If you have continued problems, consult your help file for the program, searching under "attachments, opening" or "attachments, receiving" for further instructions.

Specific for Microsoft Word: RTF documents need to be viewed in Microsoft Word’s “Page Layout View” (this may instead be referred to as “Print Layout”, depending upon your Word version) to be correctly displayed. If you open an RTF schedule and it appears to be a list of schedule information shown along the left margin of the document, select the View…Page Layout (or may be View…Print Layout, depending upon your Word version) option at the top of the Word screen. Alternatively, simply click the Print Layout View (or may be Page Layout View) button at the bottom left of the Word document, which appears (circled in blue) as:

If your computer reports an "Unknown file type" error: Viewing and printing RTF files requires that you have a program installed on your computer that is capable of opening and displaying RTF files. Since RTF files open with nearly every word processing program, this should not normally be a problem unless there has been an installation problem on your computer. Please contact the supplier of your operating system or word processing program for assistance with this.

Printing your schedules

If you can display the schedule, the printing normally is not a problem. Instructions for printing your schedule are given in detail for Microsoft Word. The concepts are similar for other viewers.

To print your schedule:

1. Have the schedule you wish to print displayed in the Word.
2. Click on the File drop down menu at the top of the screen, then select the Print... option.
3. A Print window is displayed. The default options should be satisfactory for printing the schedule.
4. Click on OK to print your schedule.

Editing your schedules and returning them by email to your schedule administrator

In addition to viewing and printing your schedule, you may want to "mark-up" a schedule and return it by email to your schedule administrator. If you have a program capable of editing RTF documents, you can edit the RTF file, save it, then email it back to your schedule administrator. Editing may require some practice, and the process will vary depending upon your editing program. For example, shift or provider names in the schedule are contained in separate text boxes adjusted to the size of the original text. If you change the text, you may need to manually enlarge the text box, usually by manually dragging its margins to a larger size.

If you are using Microsoft Outlook Express as your email program, beware that this problem has been reported:

I edit and save the ... schedule request file before sending it back, but my schedule administrator is receiving the request schedule file unchanged. My email program is Microsoft Outlook Express... Any suggestions?

Microsoft has confirmed this to be a problem in Microsoft Outlook Express (this is not a problem for Microsoft Outlook) versions 4.0 and 4.01, but we also have reports of this occurring in version 5.0. Microsoft recommends: "To work around this problem, save the attachment to your local hard disk before editing or forwarding the attachment. To save a file attachment, right-click it, click Save As , click an appropriate folder in the Save In box, type a descriptive name in the Named box, and then click OK ."

This information is from the Microsoft Knowledge Base article Q200237.