filePro and symbols

[Steve Wiltsie]

George,

You probably need to send the print job through a print filter that can scan 
for certain text combinations and replace them with something else.  Years 
ago we had something like that which would print a POSTNET bar code on 
letters or labels through filePro or any SCO XENIX or Unix based program 
that printed to the spooler.  The filter would look for a certain sequence 
of characters and then turn the next 5, 9, or (I think) 11 characters into a 
POSTNET bar code at the same position the characters would have appeared. 
We had to have the print filter tested and accepted by the Postal Service 
and even then it was only certified for the printers we demonstrated it on.

Recently I worked with a customer to have the Unibar software people modify 
Barzout so it could look for a code to produce "reverse video" (white 
letters on black background) printing on demand based on finding a { symbol 
in the text of a document to turn on reverse video printing and a } to turn 
it back off.  Yes, the users do understand the importance of not using those 
symbols for anything else and yet we had to go with a single character 
on/off code because anything more would be "too complicated".

Maybe one of these ideas would work for you.  However, these were both for 
SCO operating systems.  What is your customer on?

Steve Wiltsie
microCONCEPTS Div. multi/user/inc.        Since 1981
(812) 474-0127

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "George" <flowersoft at compuserve.com>
To: "'Jim Asman'" <jlasman at telus.net>; <filepro-list at lists.celestial.com>
Sent: Saturday, June 14, 2008 9:25 PM
Subject: RE: filePro and symbols


> Thanks, Jim.
> However, as I explained to Bob, I need to be able to let the user place
> these characters wherever they choose on the field.
> I added new print codes to the table as you suggested and the smileys and
> hearts print fine but I need to be able to either show them on the screen 
> or
> replace a pre-defined group of characters such as :-) with the smiley when
> the form is printed.
> I don't think there is a way to insert a print code into a field, is 
> there?
> When I try to use the chr("1,2 or 3")I get the filePro box function
> characters.
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: filepro-list-bounces+flowersoft=compuserve.com at lists.celestial.com
> [mailto:filepro-list-bounces+flowersoft=compuserve.com at lists.celestial.com]
> On Behalf Of Jim Asman
> Sent: Friday, June 13, 2008 11:45 AM
> To: filepro-list at lists.celestial.com
> Subject: Re: filePro and symbols
>
>
> --------------- Original Message ---------------
> At 01:40A Fri Jun 13 2008, George Simon wrote:
>
>> Is there any way of printing smiley faces, hearts and other symbols from
>> filePro?
>>
>
> Typically, you need to change symbol sets, print your character,
> and then return back to, presumably, PC-8(10U) symbols. If your output
> format is very structured, maybe you can put the whole thing into
> a printcode on the format.
>
> Look in the HP "PCL 5 Comparison Guide" for a listing of the character
> mappings for each of the supported symbol sets on the HP printers.
> Wingdings(579L) and Symbol(19M) offer a lot.
>
> If the heart and smiley face are the most important, those are available
> in the PC-8 set, among others, in chr(1)-chr(26).
>
> There is a problem with filepro if you need to use the box drawing
> characters. Internally, filepro stores the box characters as 
> chr(0)-chr(10)
> depending on the character, and then when printing it consults the
> printcode table for the character mapping for that specific printer.
>
> If you look in your printcode table, beginning at code 44 on all the
> HP tables I wrote, you find the pointers to the PC-8 box characters.
> So what you can do is to create a new "not box capable" table and
> have these pointers point back to themselves. ...
>
> 44 $0a
> 45 $00
> 46 $01
> 47 $02
> 48 $03
> 49 $04
> 50 $05
> 51 $06
> 52 $07
> 53 $08
> 54 $09
>
> If you change the graphic codes to what is shown above you
> should get the appropriate symbol.
>
>
> Jim
> --
> jlasman at telus.net                      Spectra Colour Services Ltd.
> Jim Asman                              10221 144a Street
> Phone: (604)584-0977                   Surrey, BC  V3R 3P7   CANADA
>
> Cell: (604)619-0977                   www.spectracolorservices.com
>