EASILY ACCESSIBLE FORMATING OF COMPUTER PRINTOUTS

A process for allowing non-programmers to generate customized formats for computer printouts according to user specifications. The process allows a user to create a report or other formatted representation of data by responding to a sequence of prompting stimuli. Each stimulus is presented to the user by a computer processor in combination with a menu of command choices or in combination with instructions for responding by alphanumeric command or designation. The sequence of prompting stimuli is dependent on previous command choices to present only relevant stimuli to the user. A list of generic default format commands specifies parameters not specified by the user. Consequently, the user needs to respond only to a few stimuli in order to generate a completely formatted representation of data. The generic default format commands may be changed and stored in the long-term memory as custom default format commands for easy and quick retrieval and regeneration of desired formats with updated data or with other variations. The process is accomplished by a transfer of default format commands from the long-term memory to the processor memory followed by modification of the default format commands by the user's commands given in response to the prompting stimuli. The series of commands are converted to electrical impulses suitable to direct a printer to print out the designated data according to the specifications of the user.