How to have some records print 3 forms and other records in the same batch print 4 forms?

[Nancy Palmquist]

Daniel Bauer wrote:
> On Apr 2, 2008, at 12:30 PM, Kenneth Brody wrote:
>> Quoting Daniel Bauer (Wed, 2 Apr 2008 09:44:33 -0400):
>>
>>> I have an application that has been printing 3 forms for each
>>> selected record. At least thats what it looks like for all practical
>>> purposes. The form is actually 198 (66x3) lines and has been working
>>> perfectly. This form prints the first two forms on white paper and
>>> the third page on colored paper from another paper tray. Now however
>>> the requirements have changed and SOME records will need to print an
>>> additional form. I know I could extend the form to 264 lines using
>>> dummy fields, and blank them if the extra form is not needed but the
>>> form, as it now stands, has remove blank lines set to N. Blank lines
>>> are set to N because alignment on the other pages is critical and
>>> they already have fields that are blank at various times.
>>> I need an old trick for this since we're talking filePro 4.8 and SCO
>>> Unix. It's my understanding that the form command doesn't work in
>>> output processing but I'm sure someone else has some sort of
>>> workaround for this problem. Thanks
>> I am assuming that this is *report, and not *clerk?
>>
>> Are the forms identical?  Why not just have one 66-line form, and use
>> the PRINT command to print it 3 or 4 times?
>>
>> Remove unwanted blank lines won't help you, since the form will still
>> be the specified length, regardless of the contents being pushed up or
>> not.
>>
>> Could you print the forms using *clerk instead of *report?  Then you
>> could use FORM/FORMM to print whatever you needed.
>>
>> --  
>> KenBrody at BestWeb dot net        spamtrap:  
>> <g8ymh8uf001 at sneakemail.com>
>> http://www.hvcomputer.com
>> http://www.fileProPlus.com
> 
> Yes should have been more clear this is dreport. And no the forms are  
> not identical. Then new 4th page is different from the first 3 pages,  
> and the first 3 pages have minor differences. I'm only familiar with  
> using dclerk to print forms while updated or adding records. Can it  
> be used in a batch mode?
> 
> Dan 
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> 
> 
Dan,
If you use the form as a blank page, with variables down the left (one per line) 
or one variable at the top (long enough to by 66x80), you can load it, clear it 
and load it again to print any kinds of forms you want.

A little tedious but doable.

You can also send a batch thru rclerk with the right flags to determine what 
forms to print on each record without human intervention - in a batch.

I have been developing a project that does just that.  I would try to be careful 
about the logic so that you are not hitting people that are doing data entry.

Using an index to drop you at the records you want, works.

Logically, you can hit @menu or @once processing, lookup - (dash) to the 
starting record and then process each record till finished and exit.

I could weed out the essentials, if you go this route.

Nancy

-- 
Nancy Palmquist 		MOS & filePro Training Available
Virtual Software Systems	Web Based Training and Consulting	
PHONE: (412) 835-9417		   Web site:  http://www.vss3.com