Print Setup in Hosted Databases

[bankofbermuda]

I am having problems forcing filemaker to select the proper print setup for each user in a networked environment using Filemaker 5.5.

I am selecting the correct printer using the Change Printer Plug-in. However, rather than using the default address labels we are using Diskette labels.

I have an interface file initiating a series of scripts including the print label script in the data file, it resets the print setup to address labels instead of the previously selected Diskette labels.

Any ideas on this. I would like to achieve no user interaction for this step however it appears the users may be required to select the proper label type each time they print a label.

Chris

[stanley]

You don't say if you're using Windows or Macintosh, but in the systems I've administrated, I have always noticed that the Windows machines have a disturbing tendency to forget/lose/skip the Print Setup script step. For this reason, I force Windows users to have to pass through the print dialog every time they print something - the thing is, they're Windows users and they are used to this kind of unfriendliness coming from their machines. I wish it wasn't so, but there you have it.

On the other hand, you ought to make sure that you edit the script with the print setup command on one of the PCs which will actually do the printing, rather than on a system administrator's computer. Sometimes this helps.

Hope this helps.

-Stanley

P.S.: I saw a help-wanted ad a while back to work as a FileMaker developer at Bank of Bermuda, and it sounded like the sweetest gig on earth, but I was tied to a contract & didn't respond. Is it as great a situation as it sounds?

[-Queue-]

Regarding Windows forgetting the Print Setup step: I've never had a problem with this as long as both the Print Setup and Print scripts are contained within the same script. The Print settings are actually saved with the Print Setup. If the steps are not contained within the same script, then it appears to default to the last used Print settings. So I set up indvidual scripts, consisting of only Print Setup and Print steps, for each type of print job, e.g. Portrait--Single Record, Landscape--Single Record, Portrait--Records being browsed, etc. This has worked flawlessly so far.

Also, I force users to select their desired printer for a particular report before executing Print Setup, then Print can be set to No dialog; because if a user changes the printer after Setup has occurred, the results can be highly undesirable.

[stanley]

Queue:

I like that alot. It has always bugged me that giving the user a print dialog allows them to change whatever they want. I'm going to implement what you just outlined. Thanks

-Stanley

[ernst]

An addition to the strategy Queue outlined is to make the scripts so, that if the user holds a *secret* key combination (i.e. alt +control) whilst printing she DOES get the page setup and print dialog, and otherwise not.

Ernst.