Datafile Software
Product File Listings - Application User Facilities
Here you define how the standard product reports are to
print. For each report the parameters
include the report heading (as offered to the user), print style (type of
printing), the data items to print and any sorting sequence for the final
report.
Selecting this option gives you the option to configure each
of the seven reports. Select the report wish
to configure.
Report Heading
This is the title for the report and appears on the menu
when you choose this report within Invoicer.
Print Control
Up to eight report styles can be configured through the
CONFIG user which control length and width to print. The available styles are displayed in a help
‘bubble’ at the bottom of the screen when you select this option. Enter the number of the style you wish to
use.
Data Items
Here you can select up to ten items to print across the
report from the product file (subject to print style). The list of available items is displayed on
the right but you can select via <F4-Select> as well.
Sorting Sequence
Reports are usually printed in product code order but you
can set a report sequence here by setting the data items upon which you wish to
sort. You can also choose whether that
sequence is to be processed in ascending or descending sequence.
The OPTIONS Button
Selecting the OPTIONS button allows access to the print
configuration of the report – page size, margins and fonts.
The layout of this screen differs slightly based on whether
you have set the page size (as above) or not.Before discussing the parameters you should note the buttons available
at the footer of this parameter screen
This option updates the
individual parameters from your user default when they are set, overwriting
presets where applicable. If no defaults
are set then this option is ‘greyed’ out and cannot be selected. To set user defaults see the appropriate
section below.
This saves your set parameters so they are offered as
default next time this report is run.
This option abandons any changes made and returns you to the
report configuration screen.
The report parameters available are:
Paper Size – select the paper size the
report is to be printed to (i.e. A4).You can elect to leave this blank in which case the report is printed as
per the last/default page size of the printer, however, if you do this you can
only choose fixed pitch fonts – selecting a page size is mandatory to use
proportional fonts. If you set a page size then the options screen re-displays
with the appropriate parameters. If you
leave blank then the options screen remains as above.
Default Printer Font – a font dialog is
display allowing you to select as required, the default font to be used for
this report. If you’ve sent the page
size then all fonts are available, if you haven’t set this then only fixed
pitch fonts can be assigned. You can
also set bold/italic attributes and font size – note that if you haven’t set a
page size then the font size option is not applicable (font is sized as per
previous rules).
Selecting the Font Size
Generally
you can’t go far wrong with 10point.However, if you have a lot of data items on your report, and are
printing in portrait, 10point may be too big to fit all the required
information without overlapping fields.
The
positioning of fields across the page is determined by the item size – if you
imagine the Product Price Listing report this shows, by default, the product
code (16 characters), the description (25), and 5 price fields (14 characters
each), together with spaces between the items this gives a total of 126
characters, or columns required, across the page (think graph paper – you have
126 ‘cells’ across the page).
Those 126 columns are split equally across the available page (page size and
margins taken into account) as starting positions for data items – so the
product code starts at column 1, the description at column 18 (product code
plus 1), etc. If you select a font size
too big then the product code may not finish printing before the description
starts causing the description to overlap the end of the product code. If this occurs then you may need to either
reduce the font size or consider swapping the report to landscape orientation
if the font size would go too small.
Default to Landscape – set to default
the printed report to landscape, leave blank for usual portrait
orientation. You may want to set reports
such as the Sales Ledger Aged Debtors Report or the Cashbook Receipts Analysis
Listing to landscape as these reports require a large amount of detail to be
printed and otherwise the font size could be too small.
Show Time in Report Headings – set to
include the printed time in the report headings in addition to the printed
date.
Include Selection Criteria – set to
print any selection criteria that were applied to the report.
Email as Text – if send this report via
email this option allows you to send as a text file attachment as opposed to,
if left blank, PDF.
Omit Full Page Headings – When printing
a multi-page report the system repeats the headings for each page. Setting this option reduces the heading
details for the second and subsequent pages allowing more record detail to be
printed per page.
Default Output to Spooler – Usually,
when printing a report, the default printer is the last print device used. Select this option to set the default printer
as the spooler for this report. This
acts only as a default and doesn’t prevent you electing to print the report
instead.
Allow Change of Printer Alias – when
these options are configured then it is assumed you are printing as ‘direct
windows print’ and this is the alias set by default. Setting this option allows you to change the
default alias at run-time to one of the list of Datafile configured
printers. If you change the alias to a
‘DOS’ style alias then the page size (length/width) and font are again picked
up from the Print Style Profile, although other settings such as ‘include time’
etc. remain from the OPTIONS display.
Print Negatives in Red – on selected
reports, assuming you have a colour printer; it may be useful to print negative
values in red. This option allows this.
The next set of parameters allows you to specify formatting
and margin settings. This section is
different if you set the page size earlier.If you have set the page size then you set the margins in millimetres. If you haven’t set the page size then you set
margin in ‘columns’ for both portrait and landscape - the appropriate settings
being used based on the orientation of the output selected at run-time.
Paper Size Set
Characters Per Line – the system
displays the width of the report items on the right. If you leave this value at 0 (recommended)
then the report width used in determining the start column positions of data
items (as discussed above with regards to font size) is the larger of either
the report print items or 80 columns.You can manually set a report width – from 64 to 255 columns. You may want to increase the number of
columns on (say) a landscape report with few print items to bring the fields
closer together to aid in reading.
Lines Per Page – if left at 0
(recommended) then the number of lines per page is determined by the font and
page size. Alternatively you can set a
number of lines per page, perhaps to give a greater gap between rows of data
items.
Left Margin (mm) – set the size of the
left hand margin (relative to page orientation in millimetres.
Right Margin (mm) – set the size of the
right hand margin.
Top Margin (mm) – set the size of the
top margin.
Bottom Margin (mm) – set the size of
the bottom margin.
Paper Size Not Set
Minimum Characters Per Line – the
system displays the width of the report items to the right. If you leave this value as 0 then the report
width is the larger of either the report print items or 80 characters. You can manually set a report width – from 64
to 255 characters wide – but if you set a width less than the items actually
printed then this is overridden by the report width at run-time.
Maximum Lines Per Page – if left at 0
then when printing a report the system will determine the number of lines per
page based on the report width and the printable area of the page up to a
maximum of 72 lines per page in portrait mode or 50 lines per page in landscape
mode. Alternatively you can set the
number of lines per page, from 16 to 255, and this is then taken into account
when deciding font size to ensure that number of lines is printed. If left at 0 then when sending to the spooler
the lines per page is assumed to be 72 in portrait mode and 50 in
landscape. If you require an identical
print from the printer and the spooler then a maximum number of lines should be
set.
Left Margin – set the number of
characters to be used as a margin from 1 to 64.If you require a margin then when entering the value you need to take
into account the report print width – a margin of 4 characters on an 80-character
report will be bigger than a margin of 4 characters on a 132-character
report. If left at 0 no left margin is
applied.
Right Margin – if you require a margin
to be applied on the right of the report set the number of characters
accordingly (again 1-64), if leave as 0 then no right margin is applied.
Top Margin – set the number of lines to
leave as a margin at the top of the page (1-32 lines). If left at 0 then no top margin is applied.
Bottom Margin – set the number of lines
to leave as a margin at the bottom of the page (1-32 lines). If left at 0 then no bottom margin is
applied.
Finally, you can set default options that are used when you
send the report to print or e-mail.
Print Device – if using a stand-alone
Datafile system then you can set a default printer to output to. This option only applies when sending to a
print device; if last printer was spooler or fax then this remains the
default. If using a networked Datafile
system then you can still set this where you are printing to a networked
printer – provided all terminals have a consistent device path. If the print device isn’t valid then the
normal printer is offered instead.
E-mail Address – if the report is sent
to email then here you can enter an email address that is to be used by default
for this report – though it can be amended at run-time.
Once you’ve set the desired parameters select the ACCEPT
option to apply the settings for this print or, if available, the SAVE option
to apply for this and future prints.
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