Printing to a File










From: Fred Horvat (aa778@cleveland.Freenet.Edu)

Date: 01/08/93-07:48:09 PM Z









From: aa778@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Fred Horvat)
Subject: Printing to a File
Date: Fri Jan  8 19:48:09 1993



    Have you ever needed to print a report to a file on the 
Portfolio?  Why would you want to you may ask?  There are times 
when you may need to print a report to a file.  One example for 
me was when I had a spread sheet that printed about 200 
characters wide and I only have a narrow carriage printer 80 
characters normal 120 condensed.  Well what I did was go into 
the Portfolio setup and selected Printer.  Off the Printer 
option you get a new menu with three options Parallel, Serial, 
and File.  Select File and press enter.  A line will pop up and 
will ask you the path and name of the file that you wish to 
create.  Example C:\TEST.PRN is what I keyed in you can call it 
anything you wish.  I chose an extension of PRN you could use 
TXT, DOC or what ever you wish.  When I went to print from the 
worksheet the output went to a file instead of a printer 
attached to the parallel port.  I then transferred the file to 
my desktop PC.  I used a shareware program called Sideways the 
prints a ASCII file landscaped (sideways).  It is a slow process 
but after the four pages printed I cut them and taped them
together to get my big spreadsheet.  It may not be quick or 
pretty but it was the only way I could get the report printed.
Since the report was 200 characters wide a wide carriage printer 
would not have worked anyway.

    What else is printing to a file good for?  Well if you need 
to send some one a spread sheet via modem and they do not have a 
Lotus compatible program print it to a file first and then send 
them the ASCII file.  Then all the have to do is print a ASCII 
file out.  You could even fax the file from you desktop PC.  You 
can even crunch the file to almost nothing since it's text and 
save a large amount of long distance connect time.  You could 
upload the report to their E-mail.  In other words the 
possibilities are almost endless!

    The Work sheet is not the only application that can print to 
a file.  All applications built into the Portfolio can print to 
a file.  Once you set the destination to a file then whenever 
you choose to print it will go to the file that you specified.  
This brings up a unique problem.  What if print a spread sheet
and then a memo from the Editor?  Well the Portfolio will keep 
adding to the file that you specified in setup.  This may or may
not cause a problem.  It is a bonus if you need to send a few
reports.  But you may end up with a mess of reports in the file.
In other words be aware of what's going on and to delete the 
file when your down and you should be happy.  This is just a 
quick overview on what you could do by printing to a file.  Give 
it a try you just might like it.

-- 
                                                Fred Horvat
                                                aa778
                                                Your Atari Portfolio SYGOP









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