Digital Workshop

Hi

Having viewed a similar problem on the Forum re: printing display (November 19-20, 2005), I tried the suggestions without success.

I am trying to set it so that the viewer can print out a page in landscape mode. My pub is set up as 1010X700. The page has a 4 pixel black border, and its print action displays the print diaglog, so that landscape can be selected.

No matter how I arrange the page, (even setting up a separate chapter 700X1010 and duplicate page with a frame of its contents rotated 90 degrees), the final print out displays the contents and frame in landscape mode but about .5 inch off center on the right side page border. No adjustments take this .5 inch offset away. (Since this is a large pub set 1010X700, I would prefer not to change these dimensions.)


I would appreciate any suggestions or work-a-rounds.

Kind Regards,
Stephen

For the sake of discussion lets forget for the moment that most printers will put in a border no matter what you do except for the few borderless printers. So a 8.5 by 11 inch sheet of paper at 150 dpi is equal to 1010 by 780 not 700. Before you even say go you must have the size and proportions of the page to be printed equal to what the normal print sizes are. Create a page of the dimensions you are trying to do (1010 by 700) in your favorite photo program, print it, and see what you get. I would bet that the results would not be much different. Maybe I'm missing something but your size doesn't sound like it can ever have the chance of filling up the page even with borders in effect. You either need to shorten your page or make it wider.

Hi

Thanks for your reply. I can experiment further with a larger width like 780. So far, however, the problem hasn't been to fill the page but rather to align it's width so that it is centered, rather than offset about .5 inch from the right margin yet flush with the left margin.

Any ideas/solutions are appreciated.

Kind Regards,
Stephen

PS Another separate issue I would appreciate ideas for: once the viewer saves pub data in a single folder with many, many files in it, is there a way for them to rename and resave the folder, that I can set up from within the pub? This would allow them to store the old data, re-use it again (if needed and renamed back), and free up the original folder to store new data without overwriting it. I could give them instructions on how to locate, rename
and resave the folder, but I rather automate as much as possible of this process to make it more user friendly. Any ideas would be welcome. The alternative is to create a second pub version and script a couple of hundred actions to write the data to a second (different named) folder.

Hi Stephen,

Answering the above part, you could try this approach...

Create an input box with a variable name of e.g. <BackupFolder> Plus use the Copy File action with wildcards. (read HELP more on wildcards)

In the "Copy this File" path have...

<SYSTEM_PUBLICATION_DIR>\*.txt

In the "To this location" path have...

<SYSTEM_PUBLICATION_DIR>\<BackupFolder>\

(the files will be copied to the new sub-directory name the user has typed in the input box)

Hi Steve

Thank you for your reply.

Were I to try this, I suspect that the original folder with its .txt files would have to be in the SYSTEM_PUBLICATION_DIR (currently this folder is in SYSTEM_DOCUMENTS_DIR). Otherwise it may be problematic to use a wildcard for .txt files in the user's documents directory.

Again, thanks for your idea.

Kind Regards,
Stephen

Hi Stephen

That was ONLY an example

In your case then, use some pre-concepted planning, and have your files in a subdirectory of the <SYSTEM_DOCUMENTS_DIR>. e.g. let's pretend the created subdirectory is called \Stephen\...

So in the following --


"Copy this File" path have...

<SYSTEM_DOCUMENTS_DIR>\Stephen\*.txt


"To this location" path have...

<SYSTEM_DOCUMENTS_DIR>\Stephen\<BackupFolder>\


I hope this clarifies things better. If they are not all .txt files, then use *.* instead.

Thanks Steve

I tried it out, and it works nicely.

I appreciate your help, pointing me in the right direction. Opus has fantastic features, several of which I've yet to discover.

The other challenging issue is getting a page to print out centered for both width and length. Even when I've tried the suggested 780 page width and used the printer dialog to set it as landscape, I still got a printed page about .5 inch offset from the right margin. No amount of resizing or other attempts seems to change this.

I would appreciate any ideas. Perhaps, the DW team has encountered this issue before and has a fix?


Kind Regards,
Stephen

The margins are set by your printer; not Opus. If you have an inkjet they almost always seem to have a larger margin on one edge because of the way the paper is pushed/pulled past the print heads..

Thanks Duncan for your reply.

Since it's the printer and not the way I've set up the pub, each viewer may have a different experience printing out the specific page. (Too bad, though, there's no way to influence this, since printing a certificate, off center, isn't optimal.)

Thank you again for your extraordinarily helpful assistance, support for my "steep" learning curve and all-a-round superb program, Opus XE.

Kind Regards,
Stephen

What you can do is to layout your page to add a border to the printed edge that does not have enough. Most printers suffer from the same added border syndrom, that is why I suggested taking your certificate into a photoshop type program and printing from there to see just what a printer will add to the print job. Also I have found that if you layout your certificate with a lot of built in border around all edges, the slight offset in borders will not show up as much. Combine that with a litlle purposefull off set like I suggested above and it should work. I have used this techique for printing out test reports for a big company and it works great.

Thanks for the suggestions.

I'll keep trying.

Kind Regards,
Stephen