Down To Earth - FAQ

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 Printing & Printers

Can I print a report as an ascii text file to my hard disk?

Yes . Select “File ” when prompted for the Printer options of any report. Then, enter the name of the file you want to assign to the report being printed, including any extension.

You can also use assigned system logicals followed by a colon, such as RPT: filename.ext , to land the report in the directory assigned to the logical. The result is in a flat ascii file format.

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Can I print a complete A/P or P/R check on plain check stock paper, including MICR coding?

Yes, in DTE v7.0 and with some custom programming for your bank codes and optional signature graphic. The bank ata is defined within General Ledger and the laser option is set in either Accounts Payable or Payroll as a DTE Control. There is special check card stock paper required and a laser printer. Contact Technical Support for more specific details and requirements.

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Can I fit wide reports on a 8.5 x 11 paper?   Can I print in Landscape mode? Can I use Legal size paper?  Can I change the font?

Yes, Yes, Yes, and Yes. Down To Earth prints standard 132 character, 10 cpi for most reports. If you reduce the characters per inch to 16.5 and change the font to a sans-serif font, the 132 characters fit on an 8.5 x 11 page and are still easily read. This is done within the System Manager application, Printer specifications menu selection. 

Most newer printers such as Lasers, DeskJet, Inkjets, and Line printers, have the ability to receive ascii character escape sequences as instructions for different print options. This allows the font to change and fit wide reports on 8.5 x 11 paper or the printer to turn the orientation of the print to landscape. In the case of G/L Financial Statements, you can even print about 230 characters of data onto Legal size paper in the landscape mode. (That's about as small as you would want to print the numbers.)

If a report width (in characters) is more than the value defined in the Printer specification Width  field, the escape sequences in the Reduce  field are automatically executed. Once the report has completed printing, the escape sequences in the Normal  field are also automatically executed.

The same Reduce  and Normal  escape sequences can be used in the Report begin and Report end Printer specification fields and force the escape sequences, regardless of the width of the D2E report.

Consult your specific printer's manual for the exact escape codes recognized by your printer. For HP laser and jet printers or emulation, try the standards:

Use the same codes to define and return your printer to the Normal default settings.

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How can I force a Form Feed after the last page of a report?

Enter the ascii decimal value of 012.  Most printers recognize this decimal value as instruction for a Form Feed in the Report end field of the Printer specification. Decimal values are identified as such by Down To Earth with a single left quote, the decimal code, then a single right quote:   ‘ 012 ’

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The new laser checks I have start on the wrong line of the check. How can I adjust this?

The Report begin field within Printer Specifications maintenance (System Manager) is a good place to start.  Enter the following escape sequence to send at the beginning of the "report," in this case checks. You'll probably want to use this printer number only for checks, however. 

The Top margin escape sequence,  $&l0E   -- where the l is a lower case "L" and the 0 is a zero for zero top margin lines -- help you control where the printing starts for your laser. Different lasers manage the top margin lines differently so you'll need to experiment some. The number of lines usually range from 0 - 3. 

NOTE: DTE v7 series also has the Top offset field within the printer definition as an added adjustment option.

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Can I print more than one copy of a report at a time? 

Yes . Select “Queue ” when prompted for the Printer options of any report. Go to any Reports menu column and select “Queued reports .” Select the report to print and enter the number of copies to print.

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How do I tell Down To Earth what my system queue name is?

The Device  field within Printer Specifications maintenance (System Manager) controls the system queue names or numbers for Down To Earth. The exact format of the Device  depends on the operating system on which Down To Earth is installed.

Because of the variety of operating systems available, Down to Earth must also offer a variety of methods for report output. For example, UNIX and some NT versions usually utilize the DBLOPT 22 provided with SynergyDE (DBL programming language). Windows servers can choose to print-preview with an API printer definition or use the /QNAME=QUERY/  option to query the operator for all system printers defined.

Details and options for many operating systems are provided along with examples in the System Manager User Reference manual, Printer specifications section. Additional assistance is available from our Technical Support department.

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How can I delete the report file from the hard drive after it's printed?

 If using /QNAME=  or /QNUM=  for the Device  field value of your printer specification, add /QDEL  at the end of the device statement. For example:

/QNAME=laser/QDEL

If using /QUE=  for the device (as with VMS operating systems), add /DELETE . for example:

/QUE = SYS$PRINT/FORM = 7/DELETE

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