Printing instances (Urgent!) 1

[palle]

Hello!
I have a problem with printing different instances in a movie. I need to be able to print single instances, without automatically printing all other frames, who have the #p label. I want to give the user the option of printing out text details without having to print the colored background, and without having to print unnecessary information.
Any help will be highly appreciated!
Thanks!
Palle

 

[davdesign]

hi

Ouch!

>>Problem1>>
How are you allowing the user to specify printing? Have you offered a button or do you rely on them right-clicking and selecting from the context menu?

If you're offering a button, would it be worth a try to make this button load a copy of that frame into a new level and setting the actions within this copy to print? Haven't tested this, so don't go through me if its useless. ;-)

Other than that I'm stumped for now.

>>Problem2>>
Couldn't you remove the #p label from the original text frame and set up another frame, with dynamic text and no colouring/objects, which replicates the original frame?

I'll keep looking into problem 1, if you find a solution let us know so that we don't waste our time searching.

dave dave@davdesign.co.uk

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[davdesign]

Exactly how many frames have you assigned teh #p tag to?

dave dave@davdesign.co.uk

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[davdesign]

>>prob1>>Just a thought. What about making a movie-clip which is activated on pressing the 'print' button, which tells the user which page to select on the 'Print' pop-up? The original button would open the movie-clip and the movie-clip would hold another 'print' button which when pressed would close itself and activate the 'Print'. dave@davdesign.co.uk

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[palle]

Thanks for reply!
the best solution would be to have at least 3 different instances to be prontable separately. I now have print buttons in 3 frames, with the get URL command.

In the frames following the ones with the buttons I have the instances to be printed. The text tinted black, and the background removed. So the viewer never sees the actual frame that's printed. It works well, apart from the fact that all #p labelled frames are printed at the same time.

I have turned off the flash menu, to get control of the printing process myself with the buttons.

How would I load a copy of the frame into the new level? Not really fit with this part...
Palle

 

[davdesign]

ok great

create 3 new movies, in the 2nd frame of each put in the stuff you want printed. In the first frame put a stop action, and label the second frame #p as usual.

Save each movie as say 'print1', 'print2', 'print3'.
Now, in your main movie, insert the action in the first frame:

loadMovieNum ("print1", 1);
loadMovieNum ("print2", 2);
loadMovieNum ("print3", 3);

...provided you don't have anything laoded in those frames already. Now, on your buttons just specify the relevant level.

dave dave@davdesign.co.uk

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[palle]

Okay! I have a lot of frames and if only the 3 frames should be printable, could I load the extra movies just in those frames and how could I prevent the buttons from being visible in the other frames? Would I have to load /unload the movies each time you'd get to the frames? Kind of confusing. Hope it's clear what I mean...
Thanks
Palle

 

[davdesign]

OK so correct me if I'm wrong:

If you follow my previous instructions for setting up the movies they should remain invisible at ALL times and never appear to the user except in printed format.

As far as hiding the buttons in all but the ones you want them to show: Say you want the button to be visible in Frame 3 of your movie-clip, just create a new layer in the movie-clip, insert a keyframe in Frame3 of this new layer and paste your button in there, adding the actions mentioned previously. Make sure that there are no subsequent frames on this new layer, otherwise the button shall show. When you insert another keyframe in say frame 10 to put another button in, the preceeding button shall cause extra frames to fill the gap between the two. Just drag the square on the timeline to the left of the new button back to the previous button keyframe. This means that you won't see the buttons until the user is viewing that particular frame.

dave dave@davdesign.co.uk

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[palle]

Yes. Should have thought before writing that ,) They'll be invisible of course! I'll load them all in frame 1 of the main movie. I have started making one, now having 3 frames: The first one with stop, the second one also with stop and the "get URL print:" command. In the 3d one is the text to be printed, with the #p label. I then plan to just use the Tell target to have the movie play when hitting the print button in the main movie. Or is tell target to get URL print possible? As you see, I'm not really done withe the basics, but I have to get this thing goingg in the next few days, and Couldn't find anything that made sense to me in the tutorials.
Thanks again!
The site is

http://www.humanholographics.com.

Still a bit of a construction site, which has to change asap...
Palle

 

[davdesign]

you won't be able to do a getURLrint because the action doesn't exist. You can only tell a 'level' or a 'target' (a movie-clip within any timeline or level) to print. What I've written already and what you've told me you're going to do should work, although I would keep the 'print' actions within the main timeline and not in the 'new' levels.

I'll check out your site later, as you'll have noticed in my DEVELOPMENT CHECK thread I've got a minor problem which needs attention. Feel free to post your opinions in there also, it would be appreciated.

Sounds like your sorted! ;-)

dave dave@davdesign.co.uk

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[palle]

Got it! It works! Thanks! I'm rescued.
Palle

 

[davdesign]

Smashin! ;-)

Thanks for the feedback in the other thread. dave@davdesign.co.uk

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[palle]

Okay. Here we go again... Final problem for tonight. Can't get the bounding box to work. Tried putting the #b in the frame where my instance to print is. Also tried making a new frame with a shape and giving it a #b. The printed result, though, always stretches the print, trying to fill the paper. If you can solve this one you're The greatest!
Thanks!
Palle

 

[davdesign]

can you e-mail the fla to me? dave@davdesign.co.uk

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[palle]

Second...

 

[davdesign]

just got the fla, will get back to you soon.... dave@davdesign.co.uk

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[palle]

Sorry about the file size! there is a lot of unused stuff in the library as you notice... Had no time to sort it all out.

 

[davdesign]

okay, found the solution, how badly do you need it? dave@davdesign.co.uk

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[davdesign]

sorry for tha bad joke:

I'll try to be quick

In your prinparberlin, hit Ctrl+m to modify your movie, click on the MATCH PRINTER button or set the movie size to 559.4*806 px for A4. So now your set for printing a$ size.

Now in your#b frame, set the graphic to the same size as your movie. (559*806)

Now, when i printed this it still gave me a grey background despite the movie being white, so draw a rectangle over the page (you don't have to be exact, just make sure it more than covers the size of the movie, and make sure its behind the text).

Now, you've got an A4 print out with a white background, sorted!! ;-)

dave dave@davdesign.co.uk

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[davdesign]

sorry for tha bad joke:

I'll try to be quick

In your prinparberlin, hit Ctrl+m to modify your movie, click on the MATCH PRINTER button or set the movie size to 559.4*806 px for A4. So now your set for printing a4 size.

Now in your#b frame, set the graphic to the same size as your movie. (559*806)

Now, when i printed this it still gave me a grey background despite the movie being white, so draw a rectangle over the page (you don't have to be exact, just make sure it more than covers the size of the movie, and make sure its behind the text).

Now, you've got an A4 print out with a white background, sorted!! ;-)

dave dave@davdesign.co.uk

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