I have setup a label and envelope in Beta 5. The problem I am having and have had with V4.5 is with paper bin settings. I need the envelope to print to the envelope feeder and the 5164 label to print from tray 3. I have saved each with the paper bin settings I need, but the settings are not retained. It seems it is based on the last saved setting. If the last setting I setup was for the 5164 label then when I go to print the envelope instead of printing to the envelope feeder it prints to tray 3. Is there a way to correct this? Any help is appreciated.
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RE: Printing Tray Settings
Well, well, so I am not alone in the world! This may be more than you want to know, but what the heck.
First, the easy part is that in the report (or letter) properties, printer properties, you cannot just select a "Paper Bin." If you do, the last one you select will apply to all cases where you have selected other paper bins, resulting in exactly what you are experiencing.
So, until you get v5 you need to click Saved Properties then Properties and then select the paper tray there. That does it, except that if you have a lot of this going on in a network optimized environmemt you are going to spend a lot of time maintaining these settings. #1, If you have your full copy of A5 on the server you cannot use it to do the above, at least if your workstations use different printer drivers than your server (which is almost always true). #2, For it to work, all your workstations must be using exactly the same printer drivers--no mixing Win98 and Wk2 and XP for one and the same printer. #3 If you update the printer driver on one workstation, it won't work and you'll have to update it on all workstations and then go back and reset the saved properties and refresh the shadow tables on each workstation. #4 You would probably be wasting your time if you think there is some way to set up your network printers to get around this problem. I have tried every which way I know of and nothing (so far!) has gotten around it. #5 If you update your app on a development machine, even if it has the appropriate printer driver, and then transfer it onto the production server, all you saved printer properties will be lost and have to be reset. I cannot tell you the humber of hours I have spent dealing with this issue in an app that has a dozen or so reports and letters that need to go to specific printer trays w/o user interaction.
Now for the good news: v5 will have a way of dealing with this problem through a printer override function which not only lets you override the default printer but through dot variable option settings you can also specify the tray, # of copies, orientation, and every other thing possible to set on your printer (I'm going to heaven after all!). I think it will have to be done through Xbasic and could get fairly complicated in a networked environment, but if no one else does, I will do the work of making it easy to setup and share my methods here. At that point, others here will trash my work and make it what it should have been in the first place!
Ray Lyons
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RE: Printing Tray Settings
Ray,
Thanks for the research on this. Would clearify when you give the directions:
"So, until you get v5 you need to click Saved Properties then Properties and then select the paper tray there."
Where is this "Saved Properties"?
Thanks
TomComment
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RE: Printing Tray Settings
Ray,
Thanks for offering to help us fix this little nuisance in that V4 has when V5 comes out. I haven't yet run into this issue, but I'm sure at some point I will. With V5 allowing us to change printer options, that will be great.
Alan SawyerComment
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RE: Printing Tray Settings
Ray,
Thank you for your reply. I have spent so much time trying to make this work and am glad I finally posted the problem and got an answer.
I just want to make sure I understand correctly in that the print override function is not now a part of the V5 Beta, but will be in the final version? BarbaraComment
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RE: Printing Tray Settings
Barbara,
As you have access to the beta, download build 1144 and review the release notes.Comment
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RE: Printing Tray Settings
I don't know if it's all in the release beta notes or not (probably just the printer override at this point but not the option settings). Anyway, it's all in the current beta build but it's not yet in the documentation. If you are not dealing with network issues, using saved properties in v4.5 will work. Heck, given my cautions earlier, it will even work in a networked environment. I don't see how you can reasonably use the v5 beta on a network (I wouldn't anyway). I am working on an easy way to set trays etc. in v5 network environment and when I get it done I'll sahre it in the code archives.
To clarify re: v4.5, open the report in design mode, go to Report up on the menu bar, click Report Properties, click on Specify Printer (even if you are going to use the default), select the desired printer, click on Saved Properties, then click on Properties and set your trays.Comment
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RE: Printing Tray Settings
To clarify re: v4.5, open the report in design mode, go to Report up on the menu bar, click Report Properties, click on Specify Printer (even if you are going to use the default), select the desired printer, click on Saved Properties, then click on Properties and set your trays.
RayComment
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RE: Printing Tray Settings
By the way, this is all related to my recent post "Getting data from text files." In a networked environment one really needs to save printer options, sometimes different ones for different reports and letters, applicable to each workstation. One way is to have a file on the workstation hard drive and put data from it into variables that can be used for the printer override option settings. Another is to save them all on the server and grab them from there. Yet another is to put them into the registry. See the discussion in "Getting data from text files" for reasons for each approach.
RayComment
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RE: Printing Tray Settings
Ok, now that I have recovered all the v5 beta stuff I had accidently deleted, here is a script illustrating how the printer override with option settings might look:
'Date Created: 03-Jun-2002 12:08:42 PM
'Last Updated: 07-Jun-2002 07:39:27 PM
'Created By : Ray Lyons
'Updated By :
'This is a script that might go on a form button to print
'the current record only.
options.orientation = "landscape"
options.copies = "2"
options.defaultsource = "Tray 3"
printername = "Lexmark Optra S 1650 on LPT1:"
report.Printer_override(printername,options)
'Now add print call
current_record = alltrim(str(recno(),10,0))
:Report.print("Test Report","BETWEEN(RECNO(),"+ current_record+ "," + current_record+")")
end
Ray Lyons
I'll have more on this subject in a few days if anyone is interested.Comment
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