Date:         Sun, 29 Sep 1996 13:16:09 -0700
Reply-To:     Don Stanley <don_stanley@IBM.NET>
Sender:       "SAS(r) Discussion" <SAS-L@UGA.CC.UGA.EDU>
From:         Don Stanley <don_stanley@IBM.NET>
Organization: Don Stanley Consulting Limited
Subject:      Printing Under SAS 6.11 Win 3.11 -- Thanks and explanation for my
              problem

Thanks to those folks who had a suggestion on this problem I had three
weeks back ...
 
 
I posted a question asking if anyone had any ideas why my clients system
which I just converted from 608 to 611 wouldn't print properly anymore.
Just to remind you of the problem, I was sending output to a text file
and then loading it into 608 for browsing (via FSLIST) and printing via
NOTEPAD. It didn't seem to work anymore. I was waiting for a response
from SAS to a specific question that arose but .... I'm still waiting.
Heres what the problem(s) appeared to be:
 
problem 1.
 
I switched from forms to print manager. During testing everything was ok.
Printing a different report 2 weeks later failed to recognise starts of
pages.
 
Solution. My testing printed a data step report that always printed
exactly 54 lines. It printed correctly because the page length was always
54. The report that failed was generated by proc print, and did not
always have 54 lines, but instead had a page break character inserted by
SAS. It turns out that that character is next to useless when using print
manager, as print manager does not know what to do what carriage control
characters and ignored it. I had to go back to forms to fix this.
 
Problem 2
 
forms subsystem did not recognise my 608 landscape HP form, nor any form
that I rebuilt in 611.
 
Solution. Egg on the face! Because my client was generating reports
several hundred pages long, I was using a new feature that allows
highlighting of a section of text in a SAS window,and upon selecting
file-print just the highlit (marked) text is printed. Theres nothing
wrong with this approach, except what appears to be a bug in SAS print
routines, it simply won't recognise the form and always prints portrait
using a default printer character set (thats what I'm still awaiting
confirmation of from CARY via Wellington). As for how I found this out, I
didn't mean to print without marking some text, and went to switch the
printer off, and found it printing as expected!
 
Incidentally, I also changed from using FSLIST/NOTEPAD to using the
PREVIEW window. My client didn't license SAS/AF under 608 but do now, and
the preview window makes things much simpler.
 
Don
 
 
 ========================================================================
Don Stanley,    Don Stanley Consulting Limited
                Box 14554, Kilbirnie, Wellington NEW ZEALAND
                Ph 0064 025 479 863, Fax 0064 04 386 2209
                email   DSTANLE@IBM.NET
 
Author:         Beyond the obvious with SAS Screen Control Language
Writing:        An Applications oriented FRAME text