Different printer trays

[itsuit]

I know this has been asked before, but I can't find a definitive answer.

Using CR9:

Is it possible (within the Crystal Reports Designer) to designate different printer trays for a main report and subreport? I print checks on blank check stock from one report, then print supporting documents on plain paper via a subreport. Currently we have to put these together by hand, which takes a TON of hours of labor each week.

If anyone can help me out with this, I'd really appreciate it.

 

[PrintGuy]

The best method is to specify "paper type" and then set the "paper" source on the printer. For instance, load the
checks in drawer one, set paper type to "Custom 1" and use
"Custom 1" in the Crystal Report.

Use Drawer two for the plain paper, but specify "Custom 2"
for the paper type and then use that type in Crystal.

 

[itsuit]

I'm sorry, my brain has turned to oatmeal over this. When I try to set the printer setup options, it applies the same setting to both the main report and the subreport - it won't allow me to have 2 different settings.

Am I doing something wrong?

 

[crystalreporting]

I'm not sure you can differentiate between printers or trays between the main and the subreport. If it were me, I'd be splitting the report into two separate reports - run the first, change paper, run the second.

Peter Shirley

http://www.linkcorp.com

 

[itsuit]

That's what we're doing now (run one, change paper, run the other). The problem is that it takes the staff a minimum of 6 hours per week to match up the two by hand, and sometimes mistakes are made. We'd really like to improve our productivity and accuracy by being able to run both at once.

Is there another angle from which to approach this, perhaps? Is a subreport not the best way to do it?

Again, any help is appreciated.

 

[MJRBIM]

I did this once with Cetificates and cover letters...

If it's a one-to-one relationship, you just load the BLANK paper in the correct order ---- 1 sheet check paper, 1 sheet blank paper, 1 sheet check paper, 1 sheet blank paper...and so on...

It would take much less than six hours to sort the BLANK paper before you print the report w/subreport.

 

[itsuit]

Sorry, I left that part out - this is NOT a 1-to-1 print job. Some checks might have 1 page of backup, others could have 10 pages of backup. There's no way to predict.

 

[MJRBIM]

I have a couple of ideas, but they may not be practical - can you let me know a couple of things...

A.) How big is each check "batch"?

B.) Are you running these directly from the Crystal Report desktop, or from another method (eg. Crystal Enterprise, RAS, your Application)?

C.) What Runtime Parameter or Select Statement are you using to identify the CHECK and CHECK DETAIL records to be printed?

D.) What kind of printer (make and model) are you printing to?

 

[itsuit]

A.) How big is each check "batch"?

Each batch can run from 100 to 300 checks

B.) Are you running these directly from the Crystal Report desktop, or from another method (eg. Crystal Enterprise, RAS, your Application)?

Directly from Crystal Reports Designer on the desktop

C.) What Runtime Parameter or Select Statement are you using to identify the CHECK and CHECK DETAIL records to be printed?

The parameters are based on issue date and bank code

D.) What kind of printer (make and model) are you printing to?

HP LaserJet 4000N

 

[MJRBIM]

Ok, here's a suggestion...it's not pretty - but it's better than the manual matching...

=========================================

You could create a new report that returns all of the "Check Number" records of the batch. Export the results to an Excel spreadsheet.

Update the Check and the Check Detail reports to run based on the parameter "Check Number" with the Check Report using tray #1 and Check Detail using tray #2. (ie - each report only returns one "record" per run)

Purchase and use a 3rd party scheduling tool to run the reports in a specific order, and paste the results of your spreadsheet into the Parameter for the reports - (Example Below)

ORDER REPORT CHECK NUMBER
=========================================
1 Check 012345
2 Check Detail 012345

3 Check 012346
4 Check Detail 012346

5 Check 012347
6 Check Detail 012347

7 Check 012348
8 Check Detail 012348

=========================================

Links to some of the 3rd party tools are at

http://www.kenhamady.com/bookmarks.html

Most offer free demo versions, so you can play around with the different features.

 

[itsuit]

Thanks for the suggestion, MRJBIM. If I read this correctly, if we had 250 checks with backup, we'd be scheduling each of the two reports to run 250 times?

 

[MJRBIM]

That's correct you would run each report 250 times in a FIXED "Check - then Check Detail (repeat)" order, with a FIXED paper path for each report.

Check out the schedule tools...

I've used Crystal Enterprise with APOS InfoScheduler for previous projects - but that's a pretty expensive web-based solution...you might be better off with one of the items listed under REPORT MANAGERS on Ken's bookmark list.

 

[IdoMillet]

MJRBIM's plan would work well with any of the 3rd-party "Report Managers" listed at:

http://www.kenhamady.com/bookmarks.html

provided they support Command Line invocation.

Among these Report Managers, I just finished enhancing Visual CUT to support exactly the scenario you have in mind but with better performance. The new version allows you to burst one report and, after each Group, stop and interweave print output from one or more reports (passing to these reports parameter values based on the latest group value).

This would allow you to run the Check report once and call the other report 250 times (each time with a different check number as a parameter).

Cheers,
- Ido

CUT, Visual CUT, and DataLink Viewer:
view, e-mail, export, burst, distribute, and schedule Crystal Reports.

http://www.MilletSoftware.com