what is going on?

[lynsey2]

What is going on?
I have a report designed to print a prescription (you know one of those A5 size things you get from the Doc).
I have measured where things are supposed to go, for instance, post code of the patient needs to fit into a box on the A5 bit paper exactly 2.9cm from the very top of the page and 3.2cm from the left!

I did start off having address etc all set up in the header and them the script details inside the detail section but for some reason it simply will not print.

I had a look at the file ==>page set-up and saw that it was setting margins to
Top 6.35
Bottom 24.99
Left 54
Right 7.8

So I changed these to 0 as I had already worked out where things should go from the top of my page!!!
It keeps changing these setting to random things that are never the same...doesn’t seem to matter if I save it or not.

I then went to Tools ==>options ==>general and set all the margins there to 0 this stays at 0 but my script is still not printing properly.

I decided to take away the header and footer and just have the detail section this makes no difference either????

I’m confused and have run out of any ideas of how to fix this.

I even created a new report and put it in there but it still didn’t work

 

[bjackson]

try this
go to tools -options
general,make sure all auto name options are not ticked

 

[lynsey2]

well that did something anyway!
but its still not working.
That moved it so that it was more to the right and i got 4 sheets out of the printer with and code on the forth and nothing on the middle two and the rest of the script on the first page????

 

[Rich]

Hopefully this will give you an idea of how to print to A5.
I doubt if your printer will accept 0 margins so change them to the smallest it will allow

 

[lynsey2]

Right well, I did what you have shown and put it all in the footer to do this I created a new report copy/pasted the stuff from the report I have and printed... it looks like it might do the trick.

SO

I went into my first report and cut/paste the stuff from the detail section into the footer and hay presto, my printer prints blank pages!!

Only me eh! So have I done something wrong then? All I did was cut and paste into the footer section!

 

[lynsey2]

Im not being daft i really am trying...look.....

 

[Rich]

Try putting the Ref number in the detail section

 

[lynsey2]

Ok so I did that! And now...
The ref that I put in the details section, is showing on the script (the A5 bit) where the name should be!

The rest of the script is 5.5cm down the script! And it is printing too far to the left so the sentence starting with Methadone mixture... shows up on the script as ne mixture...??

The actual script is 17.8cm long and when I print the report onto an A4 sheet just to see it has the ref at the top then the rest of the script but including it all its about 21cm long???

Never easy eh! I simply wanna print something 3.1cm down and 3.3cm in from the left on an A5 sheet! Either im really that daft or Access has serious issues to get over!

 

[Rich]

It's just fiddly Lyns, you have to decide and size the text boxes the way you want and then set all the can grow options to No

 

[neileg]

I think Rich was right to suggest you look at the margins that the printer will accept. You can't presume that the printer will do anything predictable if you are trying to print outside of the printable area. I strongly suggest that you find out what these minimum margins are and use these as your margins in Access.

What kind of printer are you using? I have found that a good dot matrix printer that has a decent sheet feeder can work best with preprinted forms.

When using A5 on what is basically an A4 printer like a laser will depend on where the form feeds in relation to the A4 image are. It works best where the A5 is centred on the same line as A4.

Inkjet printers can make a bad job of printing on A5 portrait, though landscape is usually OK. I realise that this won't work on a script form!

As this is so printer dependant, have you ensured that you have the latest drivers for your printer?

 

[lynsey2]

Oh ill just fling another bleeping problem in then... hows about I tell you im actually going to be using 7 printers in different rooms! And the report needs to print out on any one of them!
Im fed up! And annoyed!
How stupid is this!

Oh and I set all my sections and text boxes and everything can grow properties to no (even though one of the text boxes might need to by a few lines or so) and that doesn’t make the blindest bit difference.

I don’t know how to fiddle with it to make it work as I have gone into the properties of each box and sat with my ruler and told it I want it however far from the top and side and went and told the printer not to have margins or the page not to have auto name options and it still doesn’t want to play!

 

[Rich]

Post a copy here, it'll have to be in 97ver though

 

[lynsey2]

dont have 97
why has it to go in the footer anyway???? i meant to ask that earlier??
Rich this is not fun! I dont even want to think about coding this but thats the only way i can see to do it.

 

[Rich]

I do believe you have an option to save as a previous version.
In theory this can be done without code, however with seven printers, I think it might be nigh on impossible to guarantee

 

[neileg]

You can get software that controls how documents print or that will create the documents from a data stream. Stuff like Formscape. But it's not cheap, and having done a little work with a project that used this, not that easy either.

If you have 7 print locations, you may have to buy 7 identical printers so you don't have to worry about differences.

Have you thought about creating the script in a form, and printing the form? Things don't move about on forms like they do on reports.

 

[lynsey2]

That wouldn’t work as it is for a prescription, for a controlled drug. It has to go onto the actual prescription paper that the doctor usually writes on.
I am just going to play with it for a while and waste a few trees trying to place things in random places so they fit!
Not happy!

 

[lynsey2]

Here’s how to fix a problem in access...
Stress out...
Piss about...
Do everything completely NOT by the book....
and
Fixed, how I do not know! But Fixed.

I totally pissed around used half a dozen trees and did it the good old trial and error way! It seems to do the trick so far….wait for it though!!

Crazy how it doesn’t work if you do it properly but does if you blagg it eh!
never mind cheers guys!

 

[neileg]

Form

I didn't mean recreate the paper form in Access. I meant use a form to layout the text as you are in the report!

Still, if you've got it working now, that's great.

 

[lynsey2]

thanks for your help!

 

[Rich]

Patience is a virtue when working in computing Lyns