tsu@hpcupt1.UUCP (11/19/87)
XACT ON && Watch out for the dBase line-eater!
Gentle dBase users:
I have a problem with LABEL FORM that appears unsolvable. I would've
ordinarily gone to Ashton-Tate support, but I'm in the same boat as the
last fellow.
The problem is printing 5-line labels using the 3.5 x 2.75 x 3 label
forms. We set the #lines-in-label to 5 and #lines-between-labels to
1. Thus we can print 3 labels across and 11 labels down. But since we
are printing to a HP LaserJet and there is an 1/2" unprintable region
at the top and bottom of the page, we only print 3 labels across and 9
labels down - the top and bottom rows are unused. To accomplish this,
we rigged up a quick BASIC program that sets the top margin to 5 and
the #lines-of-text to 54 (6 lines per label x 9 labels going down the
page).
THE PROBLEM: Apparently, with the last label on a page, the fifth line
does not get printed out there, but rather gets printed out on the
fifth line of next page (ie on the unused top row of labels).
That is instead of getting the following on the last used row of labels,
----------------------------------------------------------------------
*Joe Smith Barbara Connell Pamela Thomas
President Vice-President Manager
Smith Computers XYZ Corporation PPT Enterprises
123 Main Street 135 Elm Street 456 Oak Lane
Cupertino, CA 95014 San Jose, CA 95503 Santa Clara, CA 95051
----------------------------------------------------------------------
we get:
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Joe Smith Barbara Connell Pamela Thomas
President Vice-President Manager
Smith Computers XYZ Corporation PPT Enterprises
123 Main Street 135 Elm Street 456 Oak Lane
----------------------------------------------------------------------
and on top of the next page, we get:
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Cupertino, CA 95014 San Jose, CA 95503 Santa Clara, CA 95051
----------------------------------------------------------------------
The next page appears normal, until we get to last row of the page.
The problem is not with the unprintable region of the LaserJet because
if we change the #lines-of-text to a multiple of 6 other than 54 (eg
48), we still have the problem.
We changed the #lines-in-label to 6 and #lines-between-labels to 0, but
this did not change anything.
Finally, we changed the #lines-of-text to 55. This worked for the
first page, but skewed the output for succeeding pages.
A workaround is to save the top row of labels and to paste these labels
with the cut-off part, but this is irritating and time-consuming.
Any solution, workarounds, suggestions are welcome!! Please mail to me
at {cbosgd,decwrl,hplabs,seismo,ucbvax}!hpda!tsu or post a response.
The best solution(s) will be posted if mailed to me. THANKS IN ADVANCE!!!
Stanley Tsu
*All names used as examples are purely fictitious. Any resemblance to
any person, living or dead, is coincidental.
deBase is a trademark of Ashton-Tate.pt0o+@andrew.cmu.edu.UUCP (11/20/87)
My e-mail to your address could not get through after three attempts, so I am posting to the BB. I am not all that familiar with the LaserJet but from what you described, I think the problem lies with the fact that dBase has a peculiar way of printing. I read somewhere sometime ago that dBase will always wait for a carriage return ( or a newline ) before it will print the current line. What I suggest is to try to add a 6th line to your label form - indicating a ";" as the fieldname and not to change your margin settings. If this does not work, try making the 5th line of the label ";"+fieldname or even fieldname+";". I encountered this problem before but I was not using a LaserJet ( I was using a Tandy DP 2200 ). I think I was able to solve it that way. If all this does not work, try just outputting labels to a text file, and then print out the text file from DOS. Before you do, check the text file ( with any text editor ) to see that the labels are okay. This process might also tell you what is wrong ( I suspect it's just a carriage return ( or newline ) that's missing ). Please e-mail results to me. HOPE THIS WORKS! - Percival pt0o+@andrew.cmu.edu
steve@violet.berkeley.edu (Steve Goldfield) (12/02/87)
I've always had best performance with dBASE by writing my own label programs which can then be precisely adjusted to the idiosyncracies of output devices. I was going to include a listing of a program to produce 3-across labels but can't find an on-line copy to upload. If you want a copy of the program listing, send a US mail address and I'll send a copy. It shouldn't be hard to modify.