Path: utzoo!censor!geac!torsqnt!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!wolfman.cis.ohio-state.edu!francis From: francis@wolfman.cis.ohio-state.edu (RD Francis) Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.apps Subject: Re: Foxbase+ and Laserwriter II NTX output Message-ID: Date: 17 Dec 90 19:02:04 GMT References: <1990Dec16.182801.16957@uwasa.fi> Sender: news@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu Organization: Ohio State Computer Science Lines: 30 In-reply-to: ldb@chyde.uwasa.fi's message of 16 Dec 90 18:28:01 GMT In article <1990Dec16.182801.16957@uwasa.fi> ldb@chyde.uwasa.fi (Lieven de Bock LAKE) writes: I'm at the moment developing some apps with FoxBase+, for the Mac. But the important part of apps in an administratiev environment is... reports, decent & fast. So has any of you any experience of teaching the fo this new trick? Right now I can send output to the LW II NTX, but the font in which it appears is totally uncontrollable. I Would need full possibilities that SET DEVI TO PRIN gives for the @ command (font & style support) What version of FoxBASE+/Mac are you using? With the old version, you've got the capabilities you're talking about. I remember having to construct a report in a procedural form. It was a pain (a big, severe, nasty pain), but it did work. It was not terribly fast, however. With version 2.0 up, use the report generator. It's evolved from a "put this char in this column in a mono-spaced font" thing to a full fledged report layout designer. You can specify font, size and style for each item in the report, along with a few other nice items (e.g.: each item can be a calculated value, as opposed to an existing variable/field; You can specify that any item expand to fit overly-large chunks of data, as opposed to having to take up two lines for every record when only 1% require using that second line; you can have lines placed in each segment of the record adjust appropriately when a data item expands; you can set break points based on your data; each break point can have a special break header and/or break footer associated with it. If you use FoxBASE+/Mac 2.0, and haven't looked at FoxReport, go sit down with the manual and experiment with it now; you may kick yourself for missing out on it for this long. -- R David Francis francis@cis.ohio-state.edu