Re: Help! Vertical lines on invoice feature huge gap!!
- From: Helpful Harry <helpful_harry@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Thu, 28 Jul 2005 19:17:41 +1200
In article <MPG.1d51eb9070fe9c80989c34@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, 42
<nospam@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> In article <280720051255392921%helpful_harry@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>,
> helpful_harry@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx says...
> > > >
> > > > Do not print portals. They haven't been designed to be printed and can
> > > > suffer from problems.
> > >
> > > I've been printing portals without the slightest issue since version 3.
> > > Could you elaborate on the problems?
> >
> > Sliding problems, the old "too many" records problem, etc.
>
> Ah sliding within portal rows. Ok... yeah avoid that. :)
>
> But since your defining the maximum number lineitems, and displaying
> them on the layout there isn't really any need actually slide them.
>
> The too many records problem can be solved in a number of ways. Moreover
> if you've explicitly disallowed "too many" records at the outset like I
> suggest then its a nonissue.
>
> For a real printing problem, consider this:
>
> Printing invoices with lineitems that themselves may or may not have an
> arbitrary 0-n number of sub-lineitems (think lot numbers, serial #
> records, etc). Note that not all line items will have these sub-lineitem
> related records, but some might have as many as 100. I still haven't
> fond a completely satisfactory method for doing this.
>
> There just doesn't seem to be any clean way to generate a 'report' of
> this.
Depends what you mean by "clean" ... and how many invoices you're
trying to print at one time.
The best bet is to go down to the sub-lineitems file and print from
there, except you say not all line items have sub-lineitems.
You could script the sub-lineitems to be collated into one text field
for printing in the line items file.
> > > > A better possibility, but always go with the most obvious:
> > > >
> > > > 3) Buy / make a stack of pre-printed invoice paper that then
> > > > gets put (back) through the printer to print the details
> > > > on to it. This is also a cheaper idea if your invoices
> > > > use colour for the "pretty bits" and only black for the
> > > > details.
> > >
> > > This is a good and common solution. Of course it suffers from the "now I
> > > need a whole new printer with more trays or have to shuffle paper
> > > perpetually" issue.
> >
> > Not really, although it depends on the size and set-up of the business
> > using the database.
>
> > Usually an inkjet only has one tray and is nearby, meaning it's not
> > difficult to put one piece of letterhead / pre-printed paper in.
>
> Ugh. Inkjet for business. Hate the whole concept. Hell... with the state
> of inkjets these days I abhor them even at home.
With laser printers now much cheaper than they used to be, there's
really little point in a business using an inkjet, unless perhaps it's
a home-office type of thing that also wants colour.
When I get around to upgrading this set-up I'll be getting a colour
laser printer instead of this inkjet.
> > Laser printers usually have two (or more) trays
>
> Most entry level lasers these days do not have multiple trays. They are
> either formatted like an injket with a sheaf upright in the rear, or
> have one tray and a manual feed of some sort.
Depends what you mean by "entry level". I wouldn't touch a Brother or
Oki printer with a barge pole. Most makes above that have a proper
manual feed tray where you can leave a small pile of paper as well as
the usual plain paper tray, and often an option for at least one more
tray.
> Sure workstation grade lasers generally have multiple trays. But in my
> experience if the user has such a system then one of 2 things seems to
> invariably occur:
>
> 1) They have a branch office(s) somehwere without such a printer, and
> they don't want to shell out for them.
>
> 2) There was a reason they bought multitray printers. And they're
> already using it for that purpose... so while it has 2 trays they're
> already in use.
>
> > and although they may be
> > further away it's still not difficult to put a piece of paper in the
> > Manual tray.
>
> True its not "difficult". But it can be mind bogglingly annoying. If the
> user is used to pressing print, stepping over to the printer to retrive
> the invoice which will be printed out when she arrives... now tell her
> that she now has to select manual feed, walk over to the printer put a
> piece of paper in it, possibly press a "go" butotn, and then stand there
> while it print... well... they aren't going to be impressed.
>
> Justifiably. I wouldn't be either. :)
You do what they do in one small place I visit. There's two office, one
out the back and one in the front with the laser printer - the people
out the back simply internally phone the front office and ask them to
put a sheet of letterhead in the printer, they then push print and by
the time they've walked through the printout has finished. :o)
Besides, it's (supposedly) bad for you if you don't get up and walk
around occassionally.
> > The only real problem is that most people aren't trrained to use a
> > printer properly.
>
> Hmmm. I'd counter that by saying that expecting someone to need training
> in the printing of invoices to be beyond "press print" "retrieve
> invoice" as an indication that the system is unncessarily complicated.
> :)
>
> Its a routine invoice printout something many people do many many times
> per day, not some custom certificate job that you want on card stock, in
> landscape, scaled down 9%, with the graphics set to 'fine'...
> micromanaging printer settings is unacceptable.
>
> I'll happily concede that there are many businesses that do batch
> invoicing once a week or something and yes, for them, swapping out the
> plain for the pre-printed is not a big hassle. But if its a business
> that prints invoices on demand then its not really satisfactory UNLESS
> you put an expensive printer behind it... which is the hassle I
> originally cited.
You're not "micromanaging printer settings" - you're choosing the
correct paper tray.
Knowing how to use the printer PROPERLY would benefit them in every
print task they do. Using the same example office as above, they have
their computers all set to automatically print double-sided ... which
is fine until someone decides to print labels. Or one peron's print job
coming out on labels or letterhead because they used the default "any
tray" option rather than "plain tray" and I've just put labels in the
"manual" tray for my printout. :o\
> > They simply use the default options which may mean
> > their printing steals your paper, whereas if they actually selected the
> > appropriate tray they'd get it on the correct paper.
>
> If the computer can reasonably be expected to know the right tray. The
> user shouldn't have to select it.
The computer can't possibly know what you want to print on - that's why
the big offices have one tray for plain paper, one for letterhead, etc.
and train the staff to be able to use the printer properly.
Helpful Harry
Hopefully helping harassed humans happily handle handiwork hardships ;o)
.
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- Help! Vertical lines on invoice feature huge gap!!
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- Re: Help! Vertical lines on invoice feature huge gap!!
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