The report writer is normally set up for printing on paper that is 8 1/2 by 11 inches (80 columns by 66 lines). There are also default margins set for three blank lines at both the top and bottom of each page. These report attributes (i.e., page size and margin settings) may be changed, however, to facilitate printing of special forms or different sizes of paper. The following table lists each attribute name and the report attribute its value controls:
Name - Attribute
Page Length - Length of page (in lines)
Page Width - Width of page (in columns)
First Line - First line number on page for output Last Line
Last line - number on page for output
These attributes appear on the Report Description screen and may be changed to suit the requirements of the report. Printing mailing labels is a relatively simple example of changing these attributes is the printing of mailing labels. In our next example, we will create a report designed to print mailing labels for all of the subscribers in the Demonstration Subscription System, sorted by their subscriber code.
After selecting the appropriate choice from the Report Generator Menu (i.e., D1 - Create Report Program), the Create Logical Report parameter form is displayed. Enter labels (once again it is assumed that no report by this logical name currently exists) into the Enter Logical Report Name field and press the STORE key <F5>. A new Report Description screen, with the standard default values, is then displayed.
In this example, we’ll assume that the labels are 40 columns by 6 lines, and that the name of each subscriber is to be printed on line 2, their address (only element number 1 of the address field is printed) on line 3, and their city, state, and zip are to be printed together on line 4, leaving lines 1, 5, and 6 blank. (Note: The 2nd element of the address field is ignored in this report.) Therefore, the default attributes must be changed to print this report. The following table lists the values which must be assigned to the various attributes:
Attribute - Value
Page Length - 6
Page Width - 40
First Line - 2
Last Line - 4
After storing the contents of the Report Description screen, the Page Heading section is displayed. Since there are no headings involved when printing labels this section should be left blank.
Pressing the NEXT key <F3> causes the Level 1 Heading section to be displayed. As in the case of the Page Heading section, since there are no headings involved when printing labels this section should also be left blank.
Pressing the NEXT key <F3> once more causes the Detail section to be displayed. This is the section in which the print fields pertaining to the subscriber’s mailing information should be added. For each of these fields, only the Field Name and Field Length values must be specified, since they are all fields contained in the report’s RMSfile. In our example, however, shorter (i.e., non-default) Field Length entries should be specified for the city, state, and zip fields. The following table lists the names of the fields that are included in this report, as well as the length that should be assigned to each of them:
Field Name - Field Length
name - 35
address[1] - 35
city - 20
state - 2
zip - 5
Since the city, state, and zip fields are printed on the same line (line number 4), a comma and spaces should be included to format the output accordingly. In this example, we will place a comma and three spaces between the city and state fields and four spaces between the state and zip fields.
You have now successfully recreated the report that is run by selecting choice 6 - List Subscriber Labels from the Demonstration Subscription System menu. Press the EXIT key <F8> to save the reportfile and return to the Report Generator Menu.