PC Press 1997 July/Sezamfile97_1.iso/msdos/database/pdx_ti2.arj/TI852.ASC

Text File | 1993-02-23 | 17KB | 529 lines

  PRODUCT  :  Paradox                                NUMBER  :  852
  VERSION  :  All
       OS  :  DOS
     DATE  :  February 23, 1993                        PAGE  :  1/8

    TITLE  :  Styling Paradox Reports and Mailing Labels




  The styling of printed text is usually controlled through the use
  of setup strings.  In many software programs this styling is
  handled by a printer driver which translates your software
  requests for bolding, underlining or a special font, into setup
  strings that the selected printer can understand.

  For instance, your word processor may allow you to highlight a
  region of text and assign a styling attribute to that region
  through a menu command.  This menu command then places special
  hidden characters (referred to as control characters) around the
  text.  These special characters are then translated into setup
  strings by the printer driver at the time of printing.

  Paradox is different from these types of programs.  Rather than
  using menu-driven styling commands and hidden control characters
  Paradox allows you to enter the setup string directly into a
  report specification.  There are no printer drivers and therefore
  no translation is performed at the time of printing.  This
  approach may seem intimidating at first, because you must obtain
  the necessary setup strings from the printer documentation and
  know how to enter these strings correctly.  Once the process is
  mastered, however, you will gain access to most of the styling
  capabilities that your printer has to offer.  Describing this
  process, is the purpose of this Technical Information Sheet.

  The following section is a step-by-step explanation of the
  process of placing setup strings into calculated fields in order
  to style reports.

     1.  You may initially choose a global setup string for the
         report through the report menu choices Settings | Setups.
         At this time you may choose Custom and enter your own
         custom string or choose Predefined and choose from a list
         of predefined setup strings.  If you wish to view the
         current global setup string, choose Custom at this
         juncture.  Press <Enter> to accept the current printer
         port, and you will see the current global setup string.
         You may modify the setup string at this time.

     2.  Prior to performing any styling it is preferable to do all
         other regular report customization.  It is far easier to
         place the styling setup strings last than to adjust them
         as you design the report specification.













  PRODUCT  :  Paradox                                NUMBER  :  852
  VERSION  :  All
       OS  :  DOS
     DATE  :  February 23, 1993                        PAGE  :  2/8

    TITLE  :  Styling Paradox Reports and Mailing Labels




     3.  Determine the appropriate setup string to perform the
         formatting task and count the number of characters
         contained in the string.  All ASCII characters with
         decimal value of 31 or lower must be represented in three
         digit decimal number preceded with a backslash (see
         Appendix C of the PAL User's Guide for a complete list of
         the ASCII Character Set and their corresponding decimal
         codes).  For instance, the Escape character which has
         ASCII decimal value of 27 would be represented as: \027.
         This set of four characters counts as a single character
         because Paradox will convert it into its single character
         form when sending it to the printer.  A typical setup
         string which bolds text on an HP Laserjet II is
         represented as: \027(s3B.  This string has a character
         count of 5.

     4.  Calculate the total number of setup string characters that
         will be placed on each line of the Report Specification.
         Make note of the highest number of setup string characters
         on any one line.  We will refer to this number as the
         Margin Offset.  Make sure you take into account all setup
         strings on the line.  If you turn bolding on and off on
         the same line using the string noted above (and its
         complement which reverses the attribute), the Margin
         offset would be 10.

     5.  Increase the Page Width of the report specification to
         accommodate the space required for the Margin Offset.  For
         instance, turning bolding on and off on the same line on a
         Laserjet requires that the standard 80 character
         portrait-mode Page Width be increased to 90.  You can
         change the Page Width from the menu with the commands:
         Setting | Pagelayout | Width.  This is a safety precaution
         to keep the text of the report from being pushed into the
         next page width.  If your report is less than 80
         characters wide, it is not necessary to perform this step.

     6.  Reports that have multiple page widths must be handled
         very carefully.  When you increase the Page Width from 80
         to 90 in order to accommodate 10 characters of setup
         string you may also be enveloping fields and text in the
         first page width that actually belong to the next page
         width.  Since the printer can only print 80 characters on













  PRODUCT  :  Paradox                                NUMBER  :  852
  VERSION  :  All
       OS  :  DOS
     DATE  :  February 23, 1993                        PAGE  :  3/8

    TITLE  :  Styling Paradox Reports and Mailing Labels




         a page, some text may "fall between the cracks" between
         the first and second page widths.  To prevent this, you
         must move the text that was originally included in the
         second page width over to the right so that it once again
         begins just to the right of the vertical bar that defines
         the right margin.  If there are more than two page widths
         in the report it may be necessary to adjust each and every
         page width appropriately.  The concept here is that if the
         original right margin was 80 then each page width as
         defined by the new margin setting can still only print the
         first 80 characters of each page width.  See Example 2
         below for more details.

     7.  Be sure that you are currently running in Insert mode by
         checking for the letters "ins" in the upper right corner
         of the Report Design screen.  If it is not on, turn it on
         by pressing the Insert key.

     8.  Move the cursor to the position on the Report
         Specification where you want to begin a styling attribute.

     9.  From the Report menu select Field | Place | Calculated.
         You will be prompted for an expression.  Type in the setup
         string enclosed in double quotes.  For instance:
         "\027(s3B".  Press <Enter> twice to accept the string and
         place the field at the cursor location.  You will be
         prompted to format the display width of the calculated
         field.  Adjust the width to match the exact number of
         characters in the setup string.  Bolding would look like
         this: AAAAAA.

  General Notes:

  The setup strings will take up space in the Report Specification
  and displace text or fields on the lines which they are placed.
  This displacement will not actually occur when the report is
  printed.  The spaces occupied by the setup strings will be "eaten
  up" by the printer which interprets them as printing commands,
  not literal characters to be printed.  If all the above
  instructions are followed, all text and fields in the report
  specification should print in the same location as they appeared
  before styling was added.














  PRODUCT  :  Paradox                                NUMBER  :  852
  VERSION  :  All
       OS  :  DOS
     DATE  :  February 23, 1993                        PAGE  :  4/8

    TITLE  :  Styling Paradox Reports and Mailing Labels




  Paradox has no support for proportionally spaced fonts.
  Activating these fonts may cause alignment problems, especially
  if used in the table band in tabular reports.  Use these fonts
  only in areas where strict columner alignment is not required (as
  in a title in the report or page header).

  Notes on Mailing Labels:

  Mailing labels are different from the typical report in that data
  in the first page width is used as a template for all other page
  widths in the report spec.  Because the first page width can
  effect the alignment of the subsequent page widths the Margin
  Offset must be precise and the number of setup string characters
  must be exactly the same on every line in the form band.  This
  insures that a fixed number of spaces will be "eaten up" on every
  line and thus the page widths beyond the first will not have a
  staggered left margin.

  If you wish to style some lines of the label but not others, you
  must place dummy setup strings on the lines that are not styled.
  You can create a dummy setup string by turning off an attribute
  immediately after turning it on.

  Examples:

  Example 1:

  The following example is based on a mailing label report.  It
  will cover styling issues relevant to both normal reports and
  reports in labels mode.  The setup strings in this example are
  appropriate for an HP Laserjet II.

  For the purpose of clarity, we will use a letter key to identify
  each field in the report specification.  Your report
  specification would not actually appear this way.  This is the
  key:

  A's = First Name
  B's = Last Name
  C's = Street Address
  D's = City
  E's = State
  F's = Zip Code













  PRODUCT  :  Paradox                                NUMBER  :  852
  VERSION  :  All
       OS  :  DOS
     DATE  :  February 23, 1993                        PAGE  :  5/8

    TITLE  :  Styling Paradox Reports and Mailing Labels




  X's = a calculated field for bold type: "\027(s3B"
  Y's = a calculated field for normal type: "\027(s0B"


  Example 1a:

  This is the mailing label report before styling:

  ....+...10....+...20....+...3*....+...10....+...20....+...3*....
  page─────────────────────────┼─────────────────────────────┼─────
  form─────────────────────────┼─────────────────────────────┼─────
  AAAAAAAAAA BBBBBBBBBB        │                             │
  CCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCC         │                             │
  DDDDDDDDDD, EE FFFFF         │                             │
  form─────────────────────────┼─────────────────────────────┼─────
  page─────────────────────────┼─────────────────────────────┼─────
  ═════════════════════════════╧═════════════════════════════╧═════


  Example 1b:

  This is the report after styling only the first line (note that
  the right margin has been increased to 40 in order to accommodate
  the Margin Offset.)

  ....+...10....+...20....+...30....+...4*....+...10....+...20...
  page───────────────────────────────────┼───────────────────────
  form───────────────────────────────────┼───────────────────────
  XXXXXAAAAAAAAAA BBBBBBBBBBYYYYY        │
  CCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCC                   │
  DDDDDDDDDD, EE FFFFF                   │
  form───────────────────────────────────┼───────────────────────
  page───────────────────────────────────┼───────────────────────
  ═══════════════════════════════════════╧═══════════════════════






















  PRODUCT  :  Paradox                                NUMBER  :  852
  VERSION  :  All
       OS  :  DOS
     DATE  :  February 23, 1993                        PAGE  :  6/8

    TITLE  :  Styling Paradox Reports and Mailing Labels




  Note that the first line has 12 characters that will be absorbed
  by the printer as print commands.  This will cause the right
  margin to return to 30 so that the next page width will print in
  the correct location.  The subsequent lines will have 12 extra
  trailing spaces and will leave the margin at 40.  This would be
  fine if this were a standard report, but in labels mode it will
  cause alignment problems.  The labels would look like this on the
  printed page:

  John Jones                                Ed Smith
  10 Jones Street                                      10 Smith St.
  Jonestown, NJ 06060                                  Smithtown,..


  Example 1c:

  The example below displays a method which corrects this effect.
  Each line beyond the first is padded with a set of dummy setup
  strings.  These strings will have no styling effect and will be
  "eaten up" by the printer.  This will pull the right margin back
  to its correct position.  Keep in mind that labels reports are
  special in that they must contain exactly the same number of
  setup string characters on every line of the report.  This
  padding technique is only necessary for mailing labels.


  ....+...10....+...20....+...30....+...4*....+...10....+...20...
  page───────────────────────────────────┼───────────────────────
  form───────────────────────────────────┼───────────────────────
  XXXXXAAAAAAAAAA BBBBBBBBBBYYYYY        │
  XXXXXYYYYYCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCC         │
  XXXXXYYYYYDDDDDDDDDD, EE FFFFF         │
  form───────────────────────────────────┼───────────────────────
  page───────────────────────────────────┼───────────────────────
  ═══════════════════════════════════════╧═══════════════════════

  Example 2:

  This example demonstrates proper text and field adjustment when
  using setup strings for styling in a multiple page width report.
  Different letters are once again used to differentiate between
  different fields.














  PRODUCT  :  Paradox                                NUMBER  :  852
  VERSION  :  All
       OS  :  DOS
     DATE  :  February 23, 1993                        PAGE  :  7/8

    TITLE  :  Styling Paradox Reports and Mailing Labels




  Example 2a:

  This is a simple multiple page free form report before
  modification.

  ....+...10....+...20....+...3*....+...10....+...20....+...3*....
   Report Header Info          │ Report Header Info
  page─────────────────────────┼─────────────────────────────┼─────
  form─────────────────────────┼─────────────────────────────┼─────
  AAAAAAAAAA BBBBBBBBBB        │CCCCCCCC DDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD   │
  EEEEEEEEEEE FFFFFFFFFFFFF    │GGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG       │
  form─────────────────────────┼─────────────────────────────┼─────
  page─────────────────────────┼─────────────────────────────┼─────
  ═════════════════════════════╧═════════════════════════════╧═════

  Example 2b:

  This is the same report after the Page Width has been increased
  to accommodate a five character margin offset.  As you can see
  fields C, D, and G now belong (partially) to the wrong page
  width.

  ....+...10....+...20....+...30....*....+...10....+...20....+...30
   Report Header Info            Report Header Info
  page──────────────────────────────┼──────────────────────────────
  form──────────────────────────────┼──────────────────────────────
  AAAAAAAAAA BBBBBBBBBB         CCCCCCCC DDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD
  EEEEEEEEEEE FFFFFFFFFFFFF     GGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG
  form──────────────────────────────┼──────────────────────────────
  page──────────────────────────────┼──────────────────────────────
  ══════════════════════════════════╧══════════════════════════════

























  PRODUCT  :  Paradox                                NUMBER  :  852
  VERSION  :  All
       OS  :  DOS
     DATE  :  February 23, 1993                        PAGE  :  8/8

    TITLE  :  Styling Paradox Reports and Mailing Labels




  Example 2c:

  This is the same report after the fields and text have been moved
  to accommodate the margin offset.  No actual styling setup
  strings have been placed yet.

  ....+...10....+...20....+...30....*....+...10....+...20....+...30
   Report Header Info               │ Report Header Info
  page──────────────────────────────┼──────────────────────────────
  form──────────────────────────────┼──────────────────────────────
  AAAAAAAAAA BBBBBBBBBB             │CCCCCCCC DDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD
  EEEEEEEEEEE FFFFFFFFFFFFF         │GGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG
  form──────────────────────────────┼──────────────────────────────
  page──────────────────────────────┼──────────────────────────────
  ═════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════

  Once in this state it is important to maintain the field
  positions as they appear.  Inputting setup strings in one page
  width will move the fields in the subsequent page widths to the
  right.  Restore them to their proper positions when this occurs.

  DISCLAIMER: You have the right to use this technical information
  subject to the terms of the No-Nonsense License Statement that
  you received with the Borland product to which this information
  pertains.