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Managing User Printers for ALL-IN-1
These notes are applicable to ALL-IN-1 version 2.3 and later.
Overview
This paper discusses an approach to managing several user printers and/or multiple logos/letterheads with
ALL-IN-1/VMS.
The strategy used will be to link each "letterhead" ALL-IN-1 Printer Type with the standard logical name
SYS$PRINT (rather than an actual printer queue) as a means of pointing to the user's "normal" printer.
The SYS$PRINT logical name can be set on a system-wide basis, via the login command files or by searching the
ALL-IN-1 user PROFILE database and retreiving the subscriber's default printer value.
In this manner, the number of Site Printer records dedicated to linking VMS print queues with VMS printer
forms can be kept to a minimum.
Introduction
As discussed in previous Application Notes, it is possible to use VMS to download fonts for specific
applications. However, the means used for downloading can quickly produce a situation which may get out of
hand when printers of letterheads are added.
There are two distinct possibilities:
One Letterhead, Few Printers
In a situation where the total number of possibilities is small (manageable), you
may wish to create additional Site Printer records.
Several Letterheads, Many Printers
Larger organizations which have extended networks containing large
numbers of printers or which require the use of several letterheads for different divisions, regions, etc may find
that mapping letterheads to printers becomes impractical because of the number of Site Printer entries required.
In the latter case, a mapping of letterhead to a user "logical" printer may prove useful, especially if it is possible
to provide a means of tailoring the mapping.
Prerequisites
You should follow the instructions in Application Note VMS-1 Using VMS as a Font Loader. We'll use the printer
/FORM named "LETTERHEAD" which we defined there.
In the "old days" of VMS computing, SYS$PRINT was normally defined as the system "line printer" -- which
many ALL-IN-1 users have probably never used (or seen). From both system management and user training
aspects, it now seems logical to use SYS$PRINT to point to a "local" LN03 to allow users to use both ALL-IN-1
print and VMS PRINT commands in a more natural fashion.
It may be useful to name the lineprinter queue "LINEPRINTER", especially if it is used infrequently.
Avoiding Confusion(?)
If you are installing several letterheads, it may be practical to use the same name for each of the following:
·
the VMS device control module which contains the letterhead,
