Printing to a File

[ConvertFromOldNGs]

by Iain S. Kerr >> Wed, 31 May 2000 22:03:16 GMT

Does anybody know how to create a printfile rather than having Jade automatically look for a Printer?

I have a need to spool letters which would be put onto different letterheads and therefore I need to create separate printfiles for each letterhead so that they can then be printed separately.

[ConvertFromOldNGs]

by John Porter >> Thu, 1 Jun 2000 6:58:20 GMT

You're probably stuck with doing it yourself - ie store off the pertinent data and allow the user to specify which bits to print when. If you have a printer driver that allows custom forms declarations, that may do what you want.

You can simulate custom forms by setting up your printer declaration as A5 (with A4 paper loaded) and ticking "Hold mismatched documents" on the printer's Properties Scheduling tab. Send an A4 document to the printer, and it will be held awaiting A4 paper. When ready, change the printer properties to A4 and printing starts. Keep in mind you can have multiple definitions of the same physical printer, one for each letterhead if desired.

Another workaround is to set the printer's availability (again on the Scheduling tab) to say 01:00 to 01:01. Files printed to this will wait until that hour. When ready to actually print, change the printer's availability to Always. The spooled printouts continue to wait. Change individual printouts to No Time Restriction to print individual docs.

Neither of these workarounds is particularly elegant. For a nicer pc interface, do it yourself. If you want the printer to pause and say "waiting for letterhead x", you'll have to find a printer/driver that supports that.

It would be nice if Windows print manager had "hold all files" and "print this one now" options.

Cheers,
John P

[ConvertFromOldNGs]

by John Porter >> Thu, 1 Jun 2000 23:23:48 GMT

Oops, forgot to mention what we settled on for out client.

Adobe Acrobat (retail version) has a function called Distiller. It is a printer driver that saves prnted output as a .pdf file, which can then be viewed and printed as desired. I didn't manage to get it to print with the same quality as direct, but maybe I was missing something. There may be a trialware download available from the Adobe website.

Cheers,
John P