Digital Workshop

I need to print a page that has dynamic information in it. I have a textfield in there which holds a text that can vary of length.

Is there a way to expand this text over multiple pages, so that every print will hold al the text (and other elements) that is available. If someone can also tell me something about making the textfield length variable, i would appreciate it. I haven't come to that yet to.

Hi,

Thank you for your enquiry.

One solution would be to create a new chapter containing a single 'dummy' page, then adjust the page size (in the Chapter properties) to make a very tall page (for example, 1024 x 2500 pixels). Now create a text object to fill this page and insert the variable you wish to print.

Now go back to your original page and add a button which prints the page you just created. However, you will need to ensure that the dummy page is never seen by the user, so make sure that there are no Go To Page <Forward> actions on the last page of the first chapter.

The other solution would be to use a Write to Disk File action to store the contents of the variable to a text file in the Windows temporary directory. You can now use a Print File action to print the contents of this text file.

I hope this helps. Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any further queries.

Kind regards,

The second option writes the content to a text-file. This would only give me the possibility to print plain text?

I already use an invisible print page (which opens in a small window and the prints and closes - opus 2.83). But will this page only be printed till the end of the actual text, or is the whole page going to be printed. When 1 page is enough, will it then stop printing ?

Thanks!

A little addition to this topic.

Now I really need to print things on multiple pages. It has to contain text and image objects. If i use a very long page, when printing, it becomes scaled, and i get 1 A4 with all the printed content on it.

Is it possible in Opus (or will it be possible ? ) I use 4.0XE.

And can anyone explain in short how I can print dynamic content on a printable page without the workaround i use now (small chapter (2*2px) with printable page, print page on opening, and close on printed).

Can anyone please help with the previous post ???

Sorry for the delay in replying to your request for help but I wanted to give a more considered reply.

There is no easy way to do what you want especially if you need dynamic output. If you are happy to have preset text you could simply create your documents as rtf files, which would allow you to combine images and text. Then simply load them in a Doc View window and then print the doc view window. Doc View and Browser windows print the whole contents of the object not just the part seen on screen by the end user.

If the dynamic content of the object printed is essential then the only way I can think this can be done is as per the attached example.

To use this example you will need to download and unzip the attached fie.
There is an image.jpg included in the zip file this file needs to be copied to the publication director after publishing. You can replace this image with one of your own either by renaming you image to image.jpg or by changing the HTML5 varable described below.
The example was produced in 05 so you will need to have either the full version of 05 or the evaluation copy installed. The method used will work in both Opus 04 and 05.


Publication details:

This example allow you to create a html file from data inputted by the end user. The resulting html file then can be loaded into a browser object and printed.


Open the imp file in Opus.

The first thing to look at is the publication variables.

Right click on the publication and select properties.
Select the Variables tab.
Scroll down the list of variables and you will see 5 new variable.

HTML1 to HTML5

HTML 1 3 & 5 contain the start middle and end of a standard html page. I made this one in Netscape composer but you can us any editor you like.

HTML 2 & 4 are blank and will be filled in with data from the end user.


Close the publication properties down and look at the first page.

Here you will see two text input boxes. When the end user types results into these boxes the results are stored in variables html3 and 4.

If you now look at the actions of the first button along the bottom of your screen titled "Create finished document to print" you will see that it add all 5 html variables together to create a new variable called document.

Looking at the actions on the second button along titled "Write doc to disk" you will see its action writes the contents of the variable document to a html file called document.html.

The third button simple takes you to the next page.

On page two you will see a browser window. Once the html file is created by the previous page it will show in this window.

The button at the bottom of the page simply prints the doc view window above.