Deferred Report Processing

Overview

Deferred Report Processing is a re-design from the V6.X DOS deferred processing user interface.  Many new features were added in Elliott for Deferred Processing and a different file, DEFERWIN, was needed to store the deferred requests, which is different from DOS’s DEFERRPT file.  For this reason, the deferred requests made in Elliott can only be managed by Elliott’s deferred processing, while the deferred requests made in DOS can only be managed by DOS’s deferred processing.  The DEFERWIN file will be created upon the first use of deferred processing in Elliott.

To ensure a deferred process that runs after business hours has completed successfully, events can be triggered when a deferred report has not finished in 4 hours, 1 day, 2 days, 3 days, etc.  An administrator or deferred process operators can subscribe to such events to monitor any incomplete deferred process.

Deferred Processing also supports an event when there is a file access error.  Therefore, an administrator can be notified when the deferred process has stopped due to a file access error.

Run Instructions

Deferred Report Processing Manager

The deferred request that users make during the printing process will be sent to a deferred queue.  You can display this queue by going to the Main Menu -> Util_Setup -> Defer Processing.  You will then see the above screen.

Process

When you click the “Process” button, you make this machine a “Defer Processing Server”.  It will constantly monitor to see if there are any tasks in the queue that are ready to be processed against its internal system clock.  When a task becomes ready, Elliott will display a pre-processing count down window to indicate the process is about to begin.  It is displayed for 10 seconds before the final action occurs.  If your machine has a sound card and speakers, the system will make a count down sound and give you an audio indication.  You still can cancel the deferred processing during the count down period if you click on the cancel button.

If you want to exit the Deferred Processing Server mode, you can simply click on the “Cancel” button to exit.

Run Now

Sometimes, the user may want to run a deferred task even though it is not the specified date and time.  You can highlight the tasks that you wish to run now and click on the “Run Now” button to immediately execute the selected tasks.

Edit

This function is very useful for making adjustments to deferred tasks in the queue.  This may be a result of an incorrect request in the first place or the deferred task’s starting time needs to be rescheduled.  Sometimes, you may even want to put a deferred task temporarily on hold until further notice.

Delete

You can highlight one or more tasks and press the “Delete” button to delete them from the defer task queue.

Options

As we discussed in the chapter “Spooled Reports Manger”, you can have multiple deferred processing servers to distribute the load.  This can be done by specifying a batch code for each different deferred processing server.  By specifying a batch code in the Options window, only the deferred tasks with that code will be displayed.  Only the tasks that display in the list box will be processed by the deferred processing manager.

Report

If you wish to print a list of Deferred Tasks, you can choose this option to print a list.  Only the deferred tasks that appear in the list box will be printed.

Log

Once processed, all deferred tasks will be logged in a history file.  If you choose to see the processing status of the deferred task, this is the function you will need.  The log function will provide information about the last 400 processed deferred tasks.

Exit

You can either click on the “Exit” button to exit the Deferred Report Processing Manager screen, or press the “ESC” key.

Laser Form & Designer

Application Overview

Elliott Laser Form supports form printing on blank paper with professional output.  Elliott supports user definable form printing.  This includes invoices, purchase orders and pre-defined laser printer forms.  Other forms, like statements and picking tickets, although non-user definable, are still supported for laser printing.  However, in the past, to print these documents on a laser printer, you would need pre-printed laser forms.  If you were printing on blank paper, the output would not look professional since only text is supported for printing.  This is where Elliott Laser Form printing support becomes valuable as it allows the printing of lines, boxes, shaded areas, text, color and bitmap images.  This makes the output look professional when printing on blank paper.  Elliott Laser Forms does not support printing checks on blank paper because of the micro coding required for bank routing and the necessity for account and check numbers.

Starting with V6.X.009, Elliott began supporting Laser Form printing.  Starting with V6.X.054, Elliott began supporting bar code printing with Laser Forms.  As of the writing of this document, the standard laser form has been defined for COP and AR invoices, Order Acknowledgements, Order Quotes, Sales Desk Quotes, Picking Tickets, Packing Lists, Purchase Orders and AR statements.  Even though A/P and P/R Check printing still require pre-printed forms for laser printing, multiple pre-defined laser form templates have been defined to allow A/P and P/R laser checks to align correctly when printing on a laser printer. 

The sample logo and address bitmaps that print make up the NETcellent logo.  You can delete these bitmap files from your data directory, (COMPLOGO.BMP and COMPADDR.BMP).  Alternatively, you can substitute the bit map with your own company logo.  You may also change the standard laser form layout to fit your needs.  The following chapter serves as necessary technical information for you to design a laser form yourself.

Run Instructions

Concept

The traditional Elliott printing programs output text data to the printer.   However, if users choose laser forms on the Print Options window, which provides line drawing, shading and images for the laser form, then the system will merge the text and laser form together to print on your printer.  The printer can be any kind of printer and is not limited to a laser printer.  For example, you can print to a color inkjet printer and have beautiful output since Elliott Laser Form printing supports color.  You can also print to a dot matrix printer.  However, the dot matrix will be too slow to make it practical.   Although the color inkjet printer will achieve great output, it is also slow for line drawing, shading and image printing.  Laser printers are fast even with line drawing, shading and image printing, and therefore are a practical solution if you intend to print forms, like invoices, on blank paper.

Elliott will support Laser form printing by using the Windows Printer driver.  Therefore, you must make sure the specified font in the Print Options Window is either “00” or “99”.  At the Print Options Window, click the “Options” button to display the Options Windows and select the desired laser form template that you wish to use.  The Pre-defined Laser Form templates include COP Invoices, Order Acknowledgements, Order Quotes, Sales Desk Quotes, Picking Tickets, Packing Lists, Purchase Orders, A/R Statements, Service Invoices, and A/P and P/R Checks.

The following screen is the “Options Window” that allows you to select the appropriate Laser Form Template. for the “Options Windows”.

The following diagram outlines the basic concept of how Elliott supports Laser Form printing.

Elliott Laser Form Support Diagram

Once the proper item in the form template is selected, the combo box beside the Options button will show the template form you chose.  The system will then print the text data and merge it with the template form to produce a professional looking form.  From this point on, your print options window will remember the form template you chose the last time and use it as the default form.

Setup Elliott to Use Standard Laser Forms

In Elliott, the application by default will assume the printing of a form is on a dot matrix printer with 66 lines per page.  However, laser printers usually print 60 or 62 lines of text and may or may not have the same length as regular forms.  Therefore, the user is required to setup Elliott to tell the system that you are using laser forms.  The following are steps required to setup each form to print on a laser printer:

COP Invoice

·         COP Main Menu -> Util_Setup -> Invoice Form Setup -> Reset -> Laser Invoice

·         COP Main Menu -> Util_Setup -> COP Setup -> 14. Default Invoice Form -> 99

·         COP Main Menu -> Util_Setup -> COP Setup -> 21. Print On Laser Forms -> I or B

COP Order Acknowledgement

·         COP Main Menu -> Util_Setup -> Invoice Form Setup -> Reset -> Laser Order Ack.

·         Main Menu -> Util_Setup -> Global Setup -> COP-Func -> Print Order/Quote Ack. -> 5. Print Order Acknowledgement with Form -> Y -> Order Acknowledgement Form Number -> 98

COP Order Quote

·         COP Main Menu -> Util_Setup -> Invoice Form Setup -> Reset -> Laser Order Quote

·         Main Menu -> Util_Setup -> Global Setup -> COP-Func -> Print Order/Quote Ack. -> 6. Print Order Quote with Form -> Y -> Order Quote Form Number -> 97

COP Sales Desk Quote

·         COP Main Menu -> Util_Setup -> Invoice Form Setup -> Reset -> Laser Sales Desk Quote

·         Main Menu -> Util_Setup -> Global Setup -> COP-Func -> Print Order/Quote Ack. -> 7. Print Sales Desk Quote with Form -> Y -> Sales Desk Quote Form Number -> 96

COP Picking Ticket

·         COP Main Menu -> Util_Setup -> COP Setup -> 19. Print Pick Tic On Forms ? -> Y

·         COP Main Menu -> Util_Setup -> COP Setup -> 20. Print Co Name On Pic Tic -> N

·         COP Main Menu -> Util_Setup -> COP Setup -> 21. Print On Laser Forms? -> P or B

COP Packing List

·         Main Menu -> Util_Setup -> Global Setup -> COP-Func -> Pick Ticket/Ship Label -> 16. Print Packing Slip on Laser Form ? -> Y

AR Service Invoice

·         AR Main Menu -> Util_Setup -> Invoice Form Setup -> Reset -> Laser

·         AR Main Menu -> Util_Setup -> A/R Setup -> 37. Default Invoice Form -> 99

·         AR Main Menu -> Util_Setup -> A/R Setup -> 48. Print On Laser Forms? -> I or B

AR Statement

·         AR Main Menu -> Util_Setup -> A/R Setup -> 17. Print Co Name On Stmt? -> N

·         AR Main Menu -> Util_Setup -> A/R Setup -> 48. Print On Laser Forms? -> S or B

PO Purchase Order

·         PO Main Menu -> Util_Setup -> P/O Form Setup -> Reset -> Laser

·         PO Main Menu -> Util_Setup -> P/O Setup -> 12. Default PO Form Number -> 99

·         PO Main Menu -> Util_Setup -> P/O Setup -> 20. Print PO’s On Laser ? -> Y

PR Check

Even though Elliott does not support the printing of checks on blank paper, (because of the micro code issue), it does support printing pre-printed PR Laser Checks.  One of the issues related to PR Laser Check printing is the margins and line spacing, which must be set up correctly for the laser check to align correctly.  One way you can set the margin is through the preference setup.  However, the margins you set will affect all printing for that workstation.  Therefore, we have introduced two PR Check Laser Form Templates, one for Elliott Form LC111 and one for Elliott Form LC111 New, with the margin and line spacing pre-set correctly.  These two templates do not print any lines, shading or bitmaps.  The only thing the template does is set the proper margin and line spacing for the associated form.  To print a payroll check on a laser printer, follow these steps:

·         PR Main Menu -> Util_Setup -> P/R Setup -> Last Screen -> 10. Print Checks On Laser? -> Y

AP Check

Similar to PR Check, we have introduced one AP Check Laser Form Template.  The purpose is to set the proper margin and line spacing.  The template does not print any lines or shading.  To print an AP check on laser printer, follow these steps:

• AP Main Menu -> Util_Setup -> A/P Setup -> 34. Print Checks On Laser? -> Y

PR W2 Laser Form

There is nothing you need to set up in order for you to print PR W2 Laser Form.  All you have to do is to make sure to select the PR W2 Laser Form template when printing W2’s.  The proper margin will be set.  The PR W2 Laser Form can be purchased at office supply stores.

AP 1009 Laser Form

There’s nothing you need to setup in order for you to print AP 1099 Laser Form.  All you have to do is to make sure to select the AP 1099 Laser Form template and the proper margin will be set.  The AP 1099 Laser Form can be purchased at office supply stores.

Customize the Sample Laser Form

The sample laser form templates in Elliott use two bitmap files:

COMPADDR.BMP

      COMPLOGO.BMP

These two bitmap files reside in the \NSI or \ELLIOTT directory, or whatever your Elliott startup directory may be.  When Elliott accesses a company for the first time, it will check for the necessary bitmap files to print the pre-defined forms that exist in the data directory.  If the images are not found, the system will copy them from the \NSI or \ELLIOTT directory to the appropriate data directory.

The sample laser form is a pre-defined form. The easiest way to print a laser form is to use the sample form provided and modify it as needed.  However, the bitmap it prints is for “NETcellent System, Inc.”  The easiest way is to prevent these images form being printed on your Laser Form is to delete these two bitmap files from the data directory after Elliott accesses it for the first time.  Then during the printing, if the system can’t find these two bit map files, it simply does not print any bitmap images.  One option for using your own company logo on the laser form is to have letter head pre-printed with your company name and logo for the laser printing purpose.

The second option you have is to modify the existing bitmap image in your data directory, or create your own. You can use a tool like Paint, which comes with the Windows Operating System, to make the necessary changes.  The size of the bitmap file does not have to be identical to the sample that Elliott provided.  As long as your bitmap file ratio is identical or very close to our sample bitmap, the bitmap should print reasonably well.  The following is the ratio of the two bit map files:

            File                               Ratio Width:Height

            COMPADDR.BMP                     7.25:2

            COMPLOGO.BMP                     1:1

If you would like to change the template beyond just making simple changes to the

bitmap files, you will need to continue reading for more information.

Laser Form Designer

The Laser Form Designer is supported after the release of Elliott V6.X.056.  Currently, the Laser Form Designer is supported in 32-bit only.  Most likely, the only changes you might need to make to the sample laser form are the bit map images.  But if you require further alteration, the Laser Form Designer provides an easy, and yet complete, method for changing the sample laser form.  It also allows users to easily create a new laser form starting from scratch or copying from an existing template.  To change an existing laser form, you must login to Elliott as “SUPERVISOR”.  Click the “Option” button on the “Print Option” Window, then the Option window will display.  Highlight the form you wish to change in the combo box, then click the “Edit Form” button.  You will see the editing screen of Laser Form Designer as shown below:

The designer is broken down into 7 different tabs for different types of data:

Defaults: This is the header data.  Information on this tab affects the entire form.

Text: Items on this tab are used to print literals on the form.

Lines/Boxes: Items on this tab are used to print lines and boxes on the form.

Shading: Items on this tab are used to create shading effects on the form.

Bit Maps: Items on this tab are used to control bitmap images like the company logo.

Bar Codes: Bar Codes can be printed on laser forms.  This tab controls what types of barcodes and specifies the data source for the barcodes.

Copies: You may wish to print multiple copies of a laser form.  For example, users may need to have one copy of a laser form sent to the Customer and a 2^nd copy to keep for in-house records.  The copies tab lets users specify the identifier literal and position for each copy (i.e. “Customer Copy”, “Accounting Copy”, etc.).

The following buttons will help you achieve the changes you need to make to your Laser Form Template:

Save/Close: By clicking this button, all the changes you make in the design screen will be saved and the designer window will be closed.

Close: By clicking on this button, the designer window will be closed.  The system will give you an option to save the changes before you exit.

Copy: Allows you to copy the current design to a new form.  Before you start to make major changes to an existing laser form template, it is a good idea to copy to a new form and change the new form without affecting the original form data.

Delete/Close: This will delete the current form and exit out of the designer.

Import/Export:  If you are a developer, this is a useful function to let you export your design to a text file.  Send this text file to your users, and they can import the text file and use your design on their system.  The export function can also serve as a backup function before you make major changes to the existing form layout.

Preview:  If you wish to see how the form layout will look, you can choose this function to preview the form.  In the Preview screen, if you notice any changes are required, you can conveniently click on the object in the Preview Screen and make changes directly.  The preview screen also allows you to choose sample data from a spooled file to display directly on the form template.  Subsequently, you will be able to preview not only the form template, but also how the form will look with data in it.

The following detailed descriptions of each tab of information in the Laser Form Designer will aid you in creating you Laser Form Template.

Default

• Margin: The margin you specified here will override the default margin you specify for the workstation.  This information is very critical for printing forms like A/P and P/R Checks.

• Page Properties:  This includes the page width and height.  The “lines per inch” control the vertical spacing and is critical to A/P and P/R Check printing.

• Default Color: This will be the default color for text, line and shading when printing the laser form.  The black and while value (between 1 and 255) is used to control the intensity when printing on a black and white printer (a laser printer).

• Line Per Page: Since the form printing program typically does not perform form feed, (it uses line feeds to control advancing to the next page),  it is important for the Elliott Laser Form program to know how many lines per page a form is so the system will perform a form feed at the correct position.

• Columns Per Page: This value should include the form border and is important to the printing program so it knows what type of font and horizontal spacing to use when printing.

• Vertical and Horizontal Offset: You need to use this because your application programs start to print from row 1 and column 1.  For example, if you want to draw a box around the outside border of your form, and row 1 and column 1 is on the line, then you can specify the offset for the text printing portion so the text won’t overlay with the line.  If you need a border, it is typically it is offset by a value of 1 for row, and/or, column.

Text

Text is used to print literal information like field headings.  You may specify the position, (after the vertical and horizontal offset is added), where you want the text and the text information to be printed.

• Starting Position:  Specify starting position row and column after the vertical and horizontal offset is added.  This is where the text will be printed on the form.

• Color:  Specify the color of the text, or simply indicate the default color to use as specified in the default tab.

• Description: The text you wish to print at the Starting Position.

• Bold/Italic: You can make the text bold or italic.  However, you can’t choose your own fonts and size.  All fonts and size must be identical on the page.  If you wish to have different font and size, then you should use the Bitmap option.

Lines/Boxes
 

For Elliott Laser Forms, lines and boxes are the same type of object.  When you specify a starting position and ending position, if they form a box (the ending row and column are both different then starting row and column), then it is a box.  If they form a line, then it is a line.  Only vertical and horizontal lines are supported. 

One of the important concepts that you need to know is called “Sub Cell”.  A Sub Cell is used in Elliott Form Design to better control the exact position of certain objects.  The internal data of a sub cell is from 1 to 9.  The following diagram shows the position of each sub cell value.  By default, the system will use sub cell 5 (center position of a cell) to draw a line or box from a starting position to an ending position.  However, sometimes this is not accurate enough and potentially may waste space.  

Sometimes you will need to draw a horizontal line between two consecutive rows of data.  Using the default sub cell 5 will not to work.  This is one reason why users may need to use sub cell to more accurately position the object.  The current cell’s sub cell position 2 is physically in the same position as the above cell sub cell position 8.  With the same principle, the current cell’s sub cell position 4 is physically in the same position as the left cell sub cell position 6.

• Starting/Ending Position:  This includes the column and row position, as well as the sub cell position.  You will specify the sub cell position, from 1 to 9, by clicking on one of the squares in the cell.

• Color:  You can either use the default color or pick your own color for this object.

• Line Thickness:  It can be thin, medium or thick.

Shading

Shading is necessary to make a laser forms look professional.  Shading usually will make a box that contains a field heading literal look better.  You may also apply shading to different columns in the line item areas to clearly separate one column from another.

• Starting/Ending Position: Shading must cover an area (box).  Therefore, the starting and ending position can not form a line.  The sub cell concept has been explained in the previous subject (lines/boxes).  Please refer to that subject if you have more questions.

• Color: The default color of the shading.

• Black and White Intensity:  The shading intensity when printing on a black and white printer such as a laser printer.

Bitmaps

Bitmaps are used in Elliott Laser Form to print a company logo or any kind of special font or text size that is different from the default.  The default bitmaps distributed with the sample laser form are NETcellent’s company logo and address.  Therefore, to use a sample Elliott form, you must first change the bitmap files to match your company.

• Starting/Ending Position:  Like Boxes or Shading, the starting and ending position need to form an area for the bit map image.  You should not encroach upon other objects on your form with your bit map.  Also, the area you specify for the bitmap may not be the exact size and proportion for the bit map file.  Subsequently the image may appear stretched.

• Use Absolute Path:  By default, the system will use a relative path to retrieve bit map images like  “$DATA\COMPLOGO.BMP”.  This tells the Elliott Laser Form to look in the data directory for COMPLOGO.BMP file.  If you are using a multiple company option, your COMPLOGO.BMP file may be different for different companies.  For multiple companies, all you have to do is change the COMPLOGO.BMP file under each data directory to reflect the proper logo and all companies can share the same laser form template.  You can also use an absolute path like

M:\ELLIOTT\DATA\COMPLOGO.BMP

Obviously, if you use an absolute path, you probably won’t be able to share the same design among different companies.

·      Variable Path: You could also specify a path of the bit map image base on another value on the printed form.  This could be, for examples, customer numbers, order numbers or item numbers.  To specify the variable path, you will use the variable @@LOC(rr:cc:ss)@@ where rr is the row number of the data printed on the form.  Cc is the column of the data and zz is the size of the data.  Below is an example of a variable path.

                  M:\ELLIOTT7\CCSIG\SO@@LOC(09,72,06)@@.BMP

Say, if the variable @@LOC(09,72,06)@@ yield a value of “131613”, then the variable path would be:

                  M:\ELLIOTT7\CCSIG\SO131613.BMP

If there is any leading space with the variable, it is converted to zero.  For example “ 31613” is converted to “031613”.

• Stretch:  Since the area you specify for the bitmap may not match exactly with the bitmap file itself, there is a potential presentation issue.  To avoid presentation issues we provide the following four different types of options:
• Do Not Stretch: This is usually not a good choice because often the system will not produce the right size bitmap on your printer.  However, since there is no stretch, there is no distortion of the image.
• Stretch to Fit: This will allow the bitmap to occupy the full space as specified in the design area.  Provided that the bitmap file’s horizontal to vertical ratio is similar to the area designated, this can produce good results.
• Use Proportional Stretch: Stretch the bitmap image proportionally and not to exceed the size of area designated for the bitmap.  This will not distort the image, and will occupy most of the space in the designated area.
• Integral Stretch: Stretch the bitmap image with an integral multiple (1, 2, 3…).  It may not occupy the entire designated area.  However, it will have the least distortion because of the integral stretching.  If your bitmap size is bigger than the actual space reserved, then it can be a problem.  Since an integral shrink means each size will be multiplied by zero, the image will simply disappear.  This situation may happen for certain low resolution printers like a dot matrix printer or Adobe Acrobat Writer.  When this happens, we suggest you use “Proportional Stretch” instead.  For example, if you design a bitmap and it prints well on a 600dpi laser printer and you print the same design on a dot matrix printer or Adobe Acrobat Writer (image resolution at 96 dpi), the resolution is significantly lower and you may experience the disappearing image problem.  On the other hand, Adobe Distiller uses a higher resolution and will work better.

• Edit:  If you wish to change the bitmap file, you can click on the “Edit” button and the system will launch the Paint program automatically (or whichever application you register as the default program for Bitmap files).  You can make changes as necessary and save and exit Paint to return to the designer mode.

Tips for editing a bitmap:  When you edit a bitmap image for an Elliott Laser form, leave as little border space as possible.

Barcodes

Starting with Elliott V6.X.054, Laser Forms supports Barcode Printing.  This is for both 16-bit and 32-bit versions.  There are two types of barcodes on the Laser Forms: (1) Absolute position barcode; (2) Relative position barcode.  Absolute position barcodes are used for header information such as the order number on an invoice or picking ticket.  Relative position barcodes are used for line item information such as the item number, even if the position of the item number is not known until the time of printing.  Relative barcodes require a data pattern to identify the line item and produce a barcode relative to the data pattern line.

Most of the one-dimensional barcodes are supported with Elliott Laser Forms.  Two-dimensional barcodes (a barcode you can scan from any direction and still results in a good read), like UPS’s MaxiCode, are not supported at this time.

Absolute Position Barcode

The following is an example of an absolute position barcode:

In the above example, a barcode will be printed from row 10 column 60 to row 12 column 78 (right above the shipping address area) on the invoice form.  The source of the data will come from row 23, column 1 (this is the position before the offset is added) for 6 digits.  In this case, it will print a barcode of the order number of the invoice.  It will use “Interleave 2 of 5” as the symbol for the barcode.  The ratio by default should be 1:3.  The following is an explanation of each field:

Starting/Ending Position:  The starting and ending position is the area where the barcode will be printed.

Color:  By default, the barcode color will be black.

Barcode Type:  The type of barcode you should choose depends on the kind of information you want to encode, the printing space available, the degree of readability needed, and the scanning equipment you use. 

When choosing a barcode type, make sure that your barcode reader has the ability to read it.  The type of barcode reader you use is a major factor when considering problems and read-errors.  Barcodes are also more prone to read-errors as they get very large or very small.  The starting row/column/sub cell and the ending row/column/sub cell determines the size of the barcode.  This is the maximum area that the barcode will print and usually the width will be somewhat smaller than the area designated.

If the system detects there is an error when printing the barcode and it cannot create the barcode, it will print an error number in the position where the barcode should print.  For a complete list of barcode print code error numbers and explanations, please see the appendix.

The Elliott Laser Form Print routine supports the following types of barcode symbology:

* U = uppercase, L = lowercase, D = digits, C= control characters

** Based on a 100 dpi resolution printer and the narrowest bar is 1 dot wide.

Ratio:  This is a two-digit numeric field value from 2.0 to 3.0.  It represents the ratio between the wide bar's width and the narrow bar's width.  The default is 3.0 to 1.

Checksum:  You may optionally add a checksum digit to certain barcode symbologies.  Entering a value 0 means no Checksum and 1 means add the checksum digit.

Rotation:  This is a 1 digit numeric field.  You would normally print a barcode horizontally from left to right.  However, you may rotate it with the following value in this field:

            0 – No rotation

            1 – Rotate 90 degrees counter clockwise

            2 – Rotate 180 degrees counter clockwise

            3 – Rotate 270 degrees counter clockwise

Input Row/Column:  The input row/column/length identifies the source of the string required to produce the barcode.  If it is for a relative position barcode, then this field is insignificant because the input row has to be the same row as the system row to find the pattern specified.  The source may be an order number, PO number, item number or customer number.  The form may be shifted horizontally and vertically to accommodate borders.  The row/column entered should be the original row and column of data before it is shifted.  You can get this information by printing the document you need to disk.  View the spooled form with an editor and you should be able to determine the exact position of your input data.  Keep in mind that we currently may not be able to support barcoding a line item if its position is not fixed relative to the beginning of the page.

Input Length:  See Input Row.  You need to make sure the length you choose can be supported by the barcode type you choose.  Certain barcode types are a fixed length and have a required number of input digits.

Relative Position Barcodes

Relative position barcodes are used to print information like item numbers in the line item area.  Usually multiple barcodes per page are need and the position (in terms of rows) is uncertain.  Therefore, we can’t use a simple input row and column to identify the source for the barcode data.  A data pattern is used to identify the line where the data source resides.  From there, we can determine whether or not the barcode will be printed.  The following is an example of a relative position barcode:

In the above example, the system will search for a data pattern ??/??/?? (a date pattern) starting from row 25 and not exceeding row 54.  The data pattern can be found starting in column 11.  Once this row is identified, it looks for the same data line in column 20 for 15 digits to find the data source (in this case, the item number).  The barcode will be printed one line below in the position of Row 1 (the relative position), Column 49 to Row 2, Column 79.

Relative Pattern:  If you leave this field blank, it indicates to the system that the barcode is an absolute position barcode for the whole page.  Specifying a pattern here indicates this is a relative position barcode.  For example, to print a barcode for an item number on a picking ticket, the system first needs to know how to find the line where the item number prints.  Usually, there is some kind of pattern you can specify to let the system search for.  For example, you may specify the following pattern:

??/??/??

Where ? will match any character. 

For example, we know on each line item, a request date will be printed at column 10.  Therefore, whenever the system finds this pattern in a page at column 10, then the system will know this is the line item row.  From there, we can find the item number and print a barcode.

Relative Pattern Column:  This field indicates the relative pattern will start in the specified column.  You do not need to specify a length because length is implied by the pattern you specify.

Relative Starting/Ending Rows:  The relative position barcode is used mostly for line items.  Therefore, the system should not search in the header and footer area for the pattern.  These two fields are used to specify the range of rows for the line items to find the pattern.

Place BC Above or Below:  When you are trying to print a relative position barcode, the starting row and ending row you specify is relative to the pattern line you find.  You can print the barcode below or above the pattern line.  The starting row number indicates the relative number of lines above or below the pattern line where the barcode will be printed.  The same principle applies to the ending row.

When you place a barcode on a page, keep in mind that you can have a maximum of 80 barcodes on a page.

Copies

This is used to specify the reference identifier for each copy of the laser form when multiple copies are printed.  If you are only printing one copy, you do not need to specify anything here.

Starting Position:  Specify the starting position where each copy’s information will be printed.

Color:  You can either use the default color, or specify a color when printing the copy's information.

Copy: A value from 1 to 9 to indicate the reference value of Copy 1, Copy 2…Copy 9.

Description:  A literal description of each copy.  For example, “Customer Copy”, “Salesman Copy”, etc.

Bold/Italic: Make the text bold or italic.

Preview

The preview function is a WYSIWYG implementation of the Elliott Laser Form Designer.  It allows you to easily view the design result on the screen before it is printed.  You can change the design easily by using the mouse and clicking on the object you intend to change and making the necessary modifications.

It is very helpful to include the printing data on the preview screen as well.  To accomplish this, we suggest you spool the output of the form to disk first.  In the preview screen, you can identify which spooled report is to be merged with the template from the “Data” drop down menu at the top of the preview screen.  This will present a complete view of the laser form output: