~~~~~RE: Preview of Print Wizard 4

[Bob Rasmussen]

Thanks John, coming from you this is a high compliment.

Back in the day, people would ask me to "say something in COBOL". Now I 
guess it's "say something in filePro". Well I don't speak very good 
filePro, but I think I can answer the question.

Let's assume you already have a program (report format) that prints 
invoices, using a few printcodes for font control. Currently it prints on 
a pre-printed form on an Okidata dot matrix printer. Now we want to route 
that data to Print Wizard *without changing* the report design.

The first question is how to make the CONNECTION. You have lots of 
options:

1) fP on Windows -> PFPOSTPRINT -> disk file -> Printwiz.exe
2) fP on Linux -> spooler -> netcat -> Print Wizard listener -> 
printwiz.exe
3) fP on Linux -> spooler -> remote printer definition -> LPD -> Print 
Wizard LPD -> printwiz.exe
4) fP anywhere -> write to disk -> PW despooler sees file -> printwiz.exe
5) fP on Linux -> PFPT passthrough print -> AnzioWin (with most Print 
Wizard logic built in)

Next is the issue of CONTENT - what's in the print data? In the scenario 
described, it's Okidata escape sequences. We'll soon be able to deal with 
those, not not yet. You have these options:

A) Choose a printer type that produces PCL-5 data, that lines up 
numerically with the one you've been using for the Okidata. Now PW will 
receive PCL-5 data, and it can understand and translate (use) that data.

B) Install the PRINTWIZ.PRT file included with Print Wizard into your 
filePro, and use it. Printcodes will now become Print Wizard Markup 
Language (PWML), which PW understands.

Now what about the OVERLAY (that is, the form background)? To get started, 
you can scan the existing paper form and save it as a .PNG file (JPG 
doesn't work well for forms). When you set up PW, tell it to use that 
file as the overlay. That's all! No messing with escape codes or hex 
editors. You have other options for making forms also:

a) Build a form in Microsoft Publisher, and export it as an EMF. 

b) Build it in Excel and do a print-to-file with a PCL-5 driver.

c) If you have an existing electronic image of the form, do print-to-file 
with a PCL-5 driver.

d) If you have a PDF, Print Wizard can now use that directly.

e) Scan an existing paper form into Omniform, which will recognize text, 
lines, boxes, etc. Clean it up. Do print-to-file with a PCL-5 driver. (We 
offer this as a service also).

f) Redesign the form by hand coding it in PWML.

g) Print anything to Windows printer driver, and capture the spool file.

Put it all together, and you get your existing report output, combined 
with a form image, going to ANY PRINTER, even Windows-only printers.

BUT WAIT, THERE'S MORE! ORDER NOW AND YOU HAVE THESE OPTIONS:

i) Send output of PW to PDF and email it.

ii) Send output to fax, from faxmodem on client or on fax server.

iii) Use multi-page overlays (or multiple overlay files) in a sequence.

iv) Adjust placement of overlay and report as demonstrated in the video. 
Save settings for next time.

v) Print three copies of each invoice, pulling from three different bins 
on the printer, each containing a different color paper. Output can be 
either collated or in sets.

vi) Handle situation where the old approach is to line up the print head 
part way down the page.

vii) Have PW translate Okidata escape sequences (soon).

viii) Preview all pages to be printed.

ix) Hand write on preview of pages to be printed. For instance, sign a 
purchase order on the screen on a TabletPC.

x) Print boilerplate data on the BACK of each page.

xi) Automatically staple each invoice set.

xii) Archive all invoices as PDFs.

xiii) Add attachments (of various formats) to print output, with output 
pages in proper sequence.

xix) Add attachments inside a PDF.

xx) Add attachments to an email (NOT inside a PDF).

xxi) Add attachments to a fax.

xxii) Print barcodes on any output.

I can see now that I have more explaining to do. Sigh.

---Bob

On Tue, 10 Aug 2010, John Esak wrote:

> Wow! I'm impressed... But your stuff always wows me...
> 
> Would it be possible for you to explain what you did in this demo in filePro
> terms?. I know how to make an overlay. But, what are you calling the report
> data?  That is to say, it looked like a form's worth of data. Would this
> represent one record's worth of data for this form overlay?   Are you saying
> one record's worth of data needs to be dumped into a file and then Print
> Wizard works with the overlay file and this file of dumped data?  Or , does
> Print Wizard work with the filePro output format in any way?  I'm sorry to
> have no previous knowledge of Print Wizard and creating overlays.  I have
> always done these manually with the help of Jim Asman.  We make an overlay
> file of say the company logo, and static form content.  Put that in
> something say called "form.ini" and then build a filePro format as normal,
> and this prints as normal with the overlay being triggered as a macro. That
> is downloaded to the printer ahead of the form data .  So, we are only
> inside filePro's report/form designer... How do we get to use the nifty
> graphical push and pull you show here?zxc
> 
> Did I say any of that so you could understand it Bob?  I know I didn't.  I
> guess what I'm asking is for you to talk me through this demo using filePro
> terminology if it is possible.
> 
> Thanks,
> 
> John

Regards,
....Bob Rasmussen,   President,   Rasmussen Software, Inc.

personal e-mail: ras at anzio.com
 company e-mail: rsi at anzio.com
          voice: (US) 503-624-0360 (9:00-6:00 Pacific Time)
            fax: (US) 503-624-0760
            web: http://www.anzio.com
 street address: Rasmussen Software, Inc.
                 10240 SW Nimbus, Suite L9
                 Portland, OR  97223  USA