CAPITAL Visual Builder does not support DOS based .RPT or .LBL files.Integrating With CAPITAL OFFICE For DOS
CAPITAL Visual Builder For Windows is fully compatible with CAPITAL OFFICE or CAPITAL Enterprise DOS versions 2.7 or greater. Operational issues related to working with the DOS versions of CAPITAL are discussed in this section.
CAPITAL Visual Builder can be set-up to handle all the form printing tasks of the DOS version. DOS forms include invoices, purchase orders, stock receipts, sales orders and so on. The list of forms that can be printed by Visual Builder on behalf of the DOS versions of CAPITAL are listed when the Forms Wizard is activated.
Visual Builder cannot be used to handle the printing of CAPITAL's DOS based reports. This is only possible if an equivalent report has been written especially for Visual Builder.
CAPITAL Visual Builder does not support DOS based .RPT or .LBL files.
Using Visual Builder as the Form Print System
To direct a form to be printed by Visual Builder add the following line inside each applicable DOS style sheet:
Where "FORM" is the name of the Visual Builder form to print. This command will instruct Visual Builder to print the form named FORM.STY. The form must exist in your \CAPITAL directory. Visual Builder must also be loaded and running in the background. If Visual Builder is not running, printing will not commence until it is started. Once started, all pending print requests will be processed.
Since its unlikely you'll want to print a DOS style sheet and a Visual Builder Form, you should also disable printing of the DOS form. This can be done by setting the OUTPUT= statement to a disk file. Consider this DOS style sheet:
[FORM=3,LEFT=0,TOP=0,BOTTOM=0,OUTPUT=DISK]
[VBPRINT=INVOICE]
[DONE]
According to the first line, the above style sheet will be directed to print to a disk file called DISK.PRN. (No paper output will be produced.)
The next line instructs Visual Builder to run the form INVOICE.STY (The .STY part of the form name does not need to be specified.) This will handle the printing of the form via the Windows print system.
The last line tells CAPITAL that the DOS part of the form printing is completed.
The
VBPRINT= command must be on the first line following the FORM= statement.
For more information on VBPRINT see: The DOS VBPRINT Command.
The CAPITAL DOS application must not run as an exclusive task. This will prevent Visual Builder from checking
the print queue. Under Windows 3.11 or NT 3.51 this setting can be controlled by a .PIF
file for CAPITAL. For more information on PIF files under Windows 3.11 load the PIF Editor found under
the Accessories Group and review its help file.
Under Windows 95/98/ME and Windows NT 4 & 2000/XP:
1. Right click on the application icon.
2. Select Properties from the menu.
3. Click on the Misc tab.
4. Check the setting: Background - Always suspend. Make sure this is NOT ticked.
5. If switching between CAPITAL for DOS and Visual Forms Builder seems slow, try increasing the Idle Sensitivity setting towards the High end.
If a CAPITAL DOS application is run in "full screen mode" responsiveness to print requests may be sluggish. This is a limitation of Windows, not of CAPITAL. You can eliminate or reduce sluggish print response times by reducing the Timer setting to 1 second. Alternatively, do not run the DOS application in full screen mode. Nonetheless, printing under Windows is almost always slower than printing under DOS.
The procedures for printing customer and supplier statements vary from the above. These issues are discussed in the next section.
If you want Visual Builder to print your customer statements the set-up procedure is as follows:
1. Decide what type of statement you will be printing or are currently using. Is it an open item, balance brought forward or other style of statement? (See the CAPITAL on-line help under Statements for information on this topic.)
2. Modify the DOS .DOC (style sheet) form to send its printed output to a disk file instead of to your printer. Do not change the form in any other way.
The above two steps only need to be carried out once.
To modify your DOS statement DOC file do as follows:
1. Start the Word/Text Editor in CAPITAL for DOS. Do this by typing U T F W [ENTER]
2. Pick from the list of available forms, the statement file you wish to print, i.e., select STATE.DOC from the list and press [ENTER] to load it into the word/text editor. Whichever file you pick, make sure it is the same one you use when you go to print statements. If you are not sure of the name go into Statements and press S for Settings. The name of the statement style sheet will be listed on this screen.
3. When you load the statement in you will see that the first line contains an entry such as:
[FORM=70,LEFT=0,TOP=10,BOTTOM=0]
The actual contents of this line will vary. It may already contain an OUTPUT statement such as the following:
[FORM=70,LEFT=0,TOP=10,BOTTOM=0,OUTPUT=LPT2]
Either change the OUTPUT= statement or add an output statement to read: OUTPUT=DISK
For example:
[FORM=70,LEFT=0,TOP=10,BOTTOM=0,OUTPUT=DISK]
This instructs CAPITAL to send its printed output to the disk file DISK.PRN rather than to your printer. (You don't have to type the .PRN at the end. CAPITAL supplies this automatically.)
4. Press [ESC] and save and exit the form.
You are now ready to prepare your statements for printing by Visual Builder.
Each time you go to print statements in Visual Builder you must do the following first in CAPITAL for DOS:
1. Print your statements just as you would normally do through CAPITAL. This process will update your statement print database. Visual Builder needs this database to be "up to date" before it can print statements with the correct information.
2. Go into Visual Builder and select and print the statement form just as you would print any Visual Builder Form.
Visual Builder's Statements
To create a statement that can be used by Visual Builder use the Forms Wizard.
1. From the Visual Builder opening screen click on the Wizards box.
2. Click on Forms Wizard.
3. Select Customer Statement from the list of available templates and click on Finish.
4. Your statement is now ready. From the Files menu select Save As and give the form a useful name, such as "state".
This customer statement form just created is designed to be used with the following options in the DOS version of CAPITAL:
1. Under Statement Print Options select "Print from beginning of period"
2. Under Special Options on the same menu select "Include unpaid entries".
(This is also now the preferred format for customer statements in the Windows version of CAPITAL.)
Remember: it is not important which CAPITAL for DOS statement style sheet (DOC file) you use when printing. The act of printing the form from CAPITAL updates the statement database that Visual Builder uses in order to print your statements. You do not want to print statements from CAPITAL for DOS directly. See the previous section on information on how to modify your statement form so as to suppress actual DOS printing.
If you do not wish to select the "Include unpaid entries" option, use the form STATEBF.STY which is placed in the \CAPITAL\FORMS directory when you first installed Visual Builder.
A more "open item" style statement is generated when you select the "Print from first unpaid invoice" option. If you will be generating statements using this option, use the form STATEPAY.STY which is placed in the \CAPITAL\FORMS directory when you install Visual Builder.
Use
the Move Forms command found on the Files menu,
when you first start Visual Builder, to move forms from one location to another. The forms you want to
actually use should be taken out of the \CAPITAL\FORMS directory and placed in your main \CAPITAL directory.
If
you simply prefer to produce a list of all unpaid transactions and present this to your customers in the
form of a statement, see the form UNPAIDS.STY found in the \CAPITAL\FORMS directory. You can run the form
at any time. You do not need to execute the statement generating utility in either the DOS or Windows
versions of CAPITAL before printing statements using this form.
You should review the information in the above section on Customer Statement Printing as information in that section also applies to Remittance Advice printing. You will have to change the content of your DOS .DOC (style sheet) form to direct its output to a disk file. How to do this for customer statements is described in this section as a step by step procedure. Repeat this procedure, except select the supplier statement (remittance) form and edit that instead.
The standard Forms Wizard creates a supplier statement/remittance advice form designed to be used with the following options in DOS:
1. Under Statement Print Options select "Print from first paid transaction"
This will list each payment and the transaction or set of transactions paid by that payment. This is now the preferred format for customer statements in the Windows version of CAPITAL.
If you prefer a "brought forward" style statement then select the "Print from beginning of period" menu option and use the pre-written form REMITBF.STY which is found in the \CAPITAL\FORMS directory.
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