What does the & sign do and How can I use it

[Lareux]

I used DOS a long time ago (pre windows), but never used it very much.  I read about using notepad to create a bat file to run programs, and automate processes.  I have made a couple of things work, but one thing that I would like to do is get all of my Financial information to come up together.  E.g. I have my budget, Quickbooks file, and 2 bank sites I want to come up to the signon screen.  

The problem I am having is on one of the bank signon screens, there is an & near the end of the address.  I noticed that when I run the script the address is only filled in up to the &.  This is probably not news to you, but it makes the page fail to load.  Why is this happening and is there anything I can do to get around it.  

Also, I was wondering if there is any way to pause until one page is loaded, type in the sign on information, and then continue with the next.

I would greatly appriciate any help I can get.

[Sidewinder]

The ampersand is used in DOS to create compound commands. As part of a web address it has no special meaning, but the DOS interpreter see's it as a meaningful symbol. You could try quoting the bank addresses, or you could write a windows script. Note: windows script also sees the ampersand as a compound instruction but within quotes is permissable.

Hope this helps.  

[Lareux]

What is Windows script, and how would I use it.  I want something that I would not have to install on every computer that I want to use it on.  I am really just looking for something that will help automate things.

I will try the quotes later and let you know how it goes.  I am in a little bit of a rush right now.  Thank you for your help.

[Sidewinder]

Windows Script has been installed on all Windows machines since Win95B although Microsoft has done very little to promote it. Think of it as batch language for the Windows Guy (it's actually much, much more). The current version of the Windows Script Host is 5.6

If you have Win2K or XP you probably have everything you need. Other versions of Windows may need to be updated. You can read about it and download any tools you may need from the Script Center


Happy Scripting.