# This is my format

format FORMATTED =
<font face="Arial"> @<<<<<<<<< </font>
$date
@<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<< $subject
@*
$article
</font><hr size="1" noshade></p>

.

# This is where the text is pulled from a file and written into another using the format.

open(FORMATTED, "> $newspage") || sendError("can't write to $newspage");
open(DATAFILE, $articalsdat) || sendError("cant open articles file");
while (<DATAFILE>)
        {
       chomp; # remove newline
       ($date,$subject,$article) = (split(/-!news-/));

       $date = "00/00/0000" if !defined($date);
       $subject = "no subject" if !defined($subject);
       $article  = "no article" if !defined($article);

        write(FORMATTED);
        }
close (DATAFILE);