Form Printing Personal Preferences

Form Printing Personal Preferences (Form Settings)

To access this window select File|Printer Setup|Form Settings from the main menu.

Print From This Computer

Tick this option if you want the copy of CAPITAL running on the selected computer to start Visual Builder and print forms such as invoices, sales orders, purchase orders, etc.

This option can be unticked so that Visual Builder is not started on your machine. This is useful if print jobs are being delegated to a copy of Visual Builder running on a different computer, (e.g. from a computer designated as a "print job server".)

Spooler Name

The name of the Visual Builder spooler file to log print job request.

See the Visual Builder on-line help reference for more information on spooler files.

Server or Workgroup Based FORM Printing

All running copies of CAPITAL can be set-up to print to a designated "server" computer. There may be a single "server" to handle all printing requirements or you may create multiple "servers" and divide printing into workgroups.

By "server" we mean any computer that is assigned the task of processing print job requests. This does not necessarily have to be your actual network file server.

The main advantage of server/workgroup based printing is that print processing can be offloaded as a task for another computer on the network. This will result in much faster response times for users who do not have to wait for print processing to be completed before proceeding to the next data entry task. The main disadvantage of server/workgroup printing is that it normally requires a dedicated computer to run Visual Builder. (Although with operating systems such as Windows NT/XP, this can usually be assigned as a non-disruptive background task.)

To set-up all running copies of CAPITAL to print from a specific machine do the following:

1. Untick the option Print From This Computer.

2. Select the Spooler Name of the "server".

The Spooler Name is the name of a spool file created using the Visual Builder Print Job Manager. (For more information on creating spool files see the last section of this topic.)

3. Ensure that Visual Builder is running on the "Server" computer and that it is set to print jobs for the above spooler name.

If you include Visual Builder as an application in your Windows start group on your "server", it will load automatically when Windows starts. For more information on how to start a program each time Windows start consult the Windows on-line help.

You may also apply the above technique to support workgroup based printing. For example, you might want all the computers on the network on the first floor to print to Printer A and all the computers on the network on the second floor to print to Printer B.

In the above scenario you would create two spooler names, for example, printa and printb. All the copies of CAPITAL running on the first floor would then be assigned to the spooler named printa. All the copies of CAPITAL running on the second floor would then be assigned to the spooler name printb. The network would then be set-up to load two copies of Visual Builder. One would monitor the printa print job queue, and the second copy would monitor the printb queue.

Many other printing arrangements are possible, depending on the assignment of print job names and the number of running copies of Visual Builder.

Local Computer Printing

1. Tick the option Print From This Computer.

2. Select a Spooler Name that will only be assigned to your local computer.

If such a spooler name does not exist you will have to create it using the Visual Builder Print Job Manager. (For more information on creating spool files see the last section of this topic.)

Print jobs will then be sent to the copy of Visual Builder running on your local PC.

If you assign the same spooler name to more than one computer, and each of these computers is set to load and print using Visual Builder, then the print job may be intercepted by any of these running copies of CAPITAL. For example, Computer A might regularly grab and print the forms created by Computer B. Likewise, Computer B might regularly grab and print the forms created by Computer A. This behaviour is usually not desirable, hence the need to assign unique spooler names if multiple copies of Visual Builder will be run on your network!

Creating a New Spooler Using Visual Builder

1. From the main menu select Special|Visual Builder or if Visual Builder is already started switch over to it using the mouse.

2. From the Visual Builder main menu select File|Print Job Manager.

3. Click on the Advanced button.

4. Enter a new spooler name and press OK.

The Spooler name might be up to 8 characters long and may consist of any combination of letters and or numbers.

5. Click OK again. You may now close the Visual Builder program if you wish.

Fax (Printer Driver)

Fax Printer

Select the name of the default fax printer driver to use when printing to a fax device.

This setting is ignored if your system is configured to communicate with a fax server.

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