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TopForm Reporting Options

TopForm offers many options when it comes to reporting, both in the sheer number of reports available, as well as in the alternatives available at run-time. However, did you know that you also have the option to place your, or your customer's logo on your TopForm standard reports? If you didn't, this article will provide you with the instructions on how to accomplish these as well as other report formatting options.

If you are already taking advantage of the PDF Printing feature within TopForm, you already have a PDF Device setup. If not, you can replicate the sample setup shown below.

This Device Setup panel can be found by using the following path:

In the Chui, you would press the F4 key at any menu, then choose "S" for System Administrator Menu, then option C4.

  1. The Device type is (in CHUI, 2 is for printer)
  2. The Printer Type should be NOHEX
  3. Device Name/Command should be /tmp
  4. and the Device Driver is tf_topdf.
  5. Check the Samba Printer box (in CHUI, type "Y" for yes.)
  6. The Queue Path provides you with a means to automatically name the file and define a location for the file to be stored.
  7. The Output Command is used to pass options to the PDF driver. Any options defined here will be applied to all reports. You also can define options on the Job Card on the Output Options screen of each report. This allows you to specify options that vary from report to report, or from one printing to the next. The example above has two options set for all reports printed using the Device name of "PP."

    • SHOW - Instructs the Printer Driver to immediately show or display the report to the user as opposed to only saving it to a file on the hard drive.
    • JPG - Instructs the Printer Driver to add a logo to the report. The name of the jpg file for this logo is logo.jpg. The numbers in brackets following the file name provide information on scaling, rotation and the position on the document for placement of the logo. The other parameters define the height and the width of the logo. (More about this later.) IMPORTANT: Logo must be saved in RGB Color mode

As stated above, the Output command is combined with the Job Card options when the print driver is called. The Job Card options will override the Output Command options if they specify differing parameters for the same options. For instance, you might want your logo to appear on most of your reports, but as an alternative, you might want your customer's logo to appear on their Print Management reports. For those reports where there is not another Image file entered on the Job Card, the one from the Device Setup will be used. If there is an image on the Job Card, it will be used instead.

In the above example, a jpg image named 500.jpg will replace the one that is stored on the Device Settings.

Another feature in TopForm will help you set these parameters once for each customer so that you don't have to revisit your notes or documentation on these instructions each time you run customer reports.

Selection

Each TopForm reports defaults to a Standard "Selection," (See below.)

However you can set up Alternate Selections. For instance, if you wish to print CSI Benefits Insurance Company's logo on the Inventory Valuation Report that you provide them each month, you can set up an Alternate Selection for them. We suggest that you use a part of their name or their customer number as the Alternate Selection Name.

Everything you enter on this panel and the Output Options panel will be saved under the Alternate Selection called 00500. Therefore, all you have to do at the time you are ready to print the Inventory Valuation Report for your customer, is to enter 00500 in the Selection field (or use the query button to select the Alternate Selection), and all your saved entries will default. You would simply click Print and your PDF would be created and displayed with your customer's logo.

Following the name of the jpg file are brackets that consist of six parameters regarding positioning, rotations and image scaling. Below is information regarding the use of these parameters.

The format is filename.jpg[ a b c d e f ]

  • a and d - Scaling Factors (Be sure to use sizes that are proportionate to the original file size)
  • b and c - Control rotation
  • e - Horizonal position from bottom left of page
  • f - Vertical position from bottom left of page

Following the bracketed parameters, there are two additional required parameters that define the size of the image. JPG_W would set the width of the image and JPG_H sets the height.

Setting e and f to 475 and 673 respectively, caused the logo to print in the header position.

Setting them to 500 and 20 respectively, caused the logo to print in the footer position. This may be preferred as heading positions vary from report to report and often times, summary or total pages have different heading formats. You may want to try different settings depending on where you would like your image to display. The image will display in an absolute position based on the coordinates you enter.

There are many other options available to you in formatting your report including changing the font, the font size, the width and length of the page and margins and more. We will discuss these options further in future TopForm newsletters. If you would like more information regarding these features, please contact TopForm support.