When landing in the Print Designer, the Preview pane will show either an empty Default page or a preconfigured Template (created for the demo database or by another User). In this Preview area, you can define the Page Width, Height, zoom in or out of the report, and make format adjustments. Each Report designed can be saved by name in the Templates area.
The following are the various formatting components of the Preview area.
Anchor
Marked by a small yellow square, the Anchor is used for positioning and aligning all input. From the Anchor, characters align left (“West”) or right (“East”) based on which is selected.
Select “DIN A4” to have pages formatted to print to DIN A4 paper size (210 by 297 mm). Select “Letter” to format page to print to US Letter size (215.9 mm x 279.4 mm). 'Default' will be indicated as the Page Format if only a single Default Template is available in the Print Designer or if the original Default Template was used to create additional Templates without selecting either the DIN A4 or US Letter standard Page Formats. The Default page size is not standard and simply serves as a base for page design. Note that if Page Width, Page Start, Page Break, or Page Height is adjusted manually, the Page Format selection will automatically change to “Other.”
Fine Adjust
Enabling this option allows selected Data and Text fields to be moved on the page pixel by pixel with keyboard arrows. When disabled, selected Data or Text fields will move 10px at a time with keyboard arrows.
Scale
Choose a value (25%, 50%,66%, 100%) from the drop down menu to zoom in or out of your report preview.
Page Width
Click the black arrows at the border of the page to change the width (value displayed in pixels). By default, the value is set for the standard DIN A4 page. To create a report in a landscape layout, click the 'Setup' button for the active Template in the Templates area. In the Setup window, tick the box next to 'Landscape (Hori.)' and select 'Yes' in the pop up to allow page adjustments. You can then further modify the width and height values, if needed.
For reference: DIN A4 Page Width = 1680 US Letter Page Width = 1730
Page Height
Change the value by clicking the black arrows.
For reference: DIN A4 Page Height = 2375 US Letter Page Height = 2240
Page Start
Modifies the top margin of your report. For example, change to allow space for printing hard copies to pre-printed paper headed with company logo. Default value is 100.
Page Break
Defines the end of the text on a page. Ideally, all data and text fields from the Elements/Options column are placed with vertical position “0” so that data and text will break correctly when moving Page Break. If using the “Footer” section, all text and rectangles in Footer will remain above the page break. Default value is 2275.
Moving elements (Text or Rectangle) from the Footer section to a vertical position greater than 40, will move up the beginning of the Footer section, though the Footer may appear to be in the same place on the page. Data and text fields in the main body of the page will therefore break at a different point without having changed the Page Break itself.
Currency
By default, the Print Designer will display totals in the currency you have set as primary in the Financial tab of the Server Setup. There it is possible to set two more currencies and their exchange rates.
If you wish to display a report in any of those currencies, click on the Currency option at the bottom of the Print Designer, and the figures will be recalculated according to the exchange rate previously set in the Server (or in the Toolbox via the Settings Tab, 'Server Setup').
Page Setup (Mac OS only)
This option is generated from the Mac operating system, allowing for general page and printing adjustments:
- Format For: If you are creating settings that you want to apply to any printer, choose Any Printer. If the settings are for a specific printer, choose the printer's name.
- Paper Size: Specify the page size. When you create a new document in farmerswife, the document will automatically be formatted to fit this page size.
- Orientation: This feature is no longer supported. Instead use Print Designer Template Setup as explained above under Page Width.
- Scale: Type the percentage that you want to reduce or enlarge the printout. If you are printing a document to a paper size that is different from the size the document was formatted for, use the 'Scale to fit paper size' option in the Print dialogue.
- Print (v6.5 and below): Opens the system printer window. If you have a PDF printer installed, you will be able to print/ save the report, invoices etc. as a PDF, as well as print a hard copy using a connected printer. Note: This is now changed in v6.6+, read about that here.
Note: From farmerswife v.6.6, when you print reports there is a new “Print As PDF…” button. This “Built-In-PDF-Printer” was implemented to support the new fw Client-side 64bit support on Windows and Mac. The functionality has been further developed from 6.6 SP1 with regards to the Save Location.
- OK: Close the Print Designer window without printing. A dialogue will appear if changes were made to a Template. Choose 'Save' or 'Save As' to save the changes or 'Ignore' to exit without saving changes.