p.i. Guolo Davide, Via Cime di Lavaredo 30, 45100 Rovigo (RO) - ITALY
http://www.guolo.com/printfil   email:printfil@guolo.com
=====================================================================

                         PRINTFIL rel. 2.1

This software, designed for Microsoft Windows will allow you to print
an ascii text file using every printer which has a Windows driver.
The file can be generated from a Dos/Windows application, or a UNIX
or UNIX-LIKE application, if it resides on a file system which is
accessible from Windows (NFS, SCO-VisionFS, Samba for Linux boxes
and others)

For install it, simply execute setup.exe 

Once configured, it allow to obtain the printing preview, to include
logos or others images stored in separate files, to send the files via
fax (if a 3rd parties fax service, acting like a printer is installed,
i.e. Microsoft Fax), to obtain A4 landscape sheets instead of prints
over dot-matrix 136 cols printers, to printing on USB devices or remote
devices over the LAN, even if the original application can not print
on that type of device, to use special fonts (for instance barcodes)
as you can print normal characters, and others interesting features.

It runs like a backgroud task on the application bar, automatically self-
activated when it finds a file to print, generated by other applications
(for instance accounting software).

For its configurations two ascii files are needed.
The first (PRINTFIL.CFG) contains general informations, which are used
in all the printing jobs.
The second (FILENAME.CFG) contains sfecific informations, which can 
differs from print job to print job.


PRINTFIL.CFG
============
This configuration file can be manipulated from the final user, throught
the menu items, oo can be edited with a simple text editor.
There are 4 rows:

  1) FILE NAME TO CHECK
     This is the name of the ascii file to print.
     It can have an optional path (i.e. F:\SPOOL\STAMPA.TXT), but
     it can not using long file names and the following extensions:
     .CFG e .TMP (i.e.: C:\Program Files\file.txt will be inserted
     as C:\Progra~1\file.txt )
     Your software must redirect the print output on this file.

  2) FONT
     This is the name of a font installed on your Windows box.
     We suggest to use the proper menu item to edit this row.
     NOTE: Theorically you can use any font on your PC, but if
     your report was designed to run on dot-matrix printer, you
     must probably use a fixed-font (like Courier New), or your
     coloumns will not be right.
     We like a lot Andale Mono. It is a fixed-font (the 'i' char
     is as wide as the 'm' char), but it look very well.

  3) ACTION
     This row can be one of the four values here described
     PREVIEW: When Printfil detects a file to print, this will be
              first displayed, then, if you want, you can print it
              on the default Windows printer.
     DIRECT: When Printfil detects a file to print, this will be
             directly sended to the default Windows printer, without
             interation with the final user.
     CHOOSE PREVIEW: It acts as the PREVIEW action, but before to
                     preview the file, the user can choose the printer
                     and modify its properties.
     CHHOSE DIRECT: It acts as the DIRECT action, but before to print
                    the file, the user can choose the printer and
                    modify its properties.

  4) TIMER
     This number is useful to set how much seconds PRINTFIL must wait to
     check if a file to print is present. It's not good to set a value
     too little, because PRINTFIL could start printing a file that your
     application hasn't been finished to generate. Usually 3 seconds are
     a sufficient time to allow the end of the file, and not annoying the
     user waiting a lot of time. Note that if your software performs long
     actions during the generation of the file (for instance long select
     over a very large database), your print file could stop growing for
     more of 3 seconds, and Printfil could start too early.


FILENAME.CFG
============
This file is usually created from your application with the file to print.
This is probably the only work you have to do on your applications to
use all the power of Printfil.
Without this file, Printfil will use some default values.
The FILENAME is the same of the file name inserted on the first row of
PRINTFIL.CFG.
It has four rows too:

  1) PRINT NAME
     It's a description which will be displayed on the title of the
     preview window (if exists) and in the list of pending spooler
     processes.
     The default value is "Stampa"

  2) NUMBER OF ROWS
     This is the number of row in a page. PRINTFIL will "brake" the file
     in different pages, changing the height of the selected font according
     to the height of the paper indicated in the printer properties.
     The default value is "66"

  3) NUMBER OF COLOUMNS
     This is the max no. of cols in the print job (i.e. the lenght of the
     longer line in the file). PRINTFIL will change the width of the font
     according to the width of the paper indicated in the printer properties.
     ATTENTION: If you set this number over 150, and ACTION is set to not
                ask to the user about the orientation of the sheet, (PREVIEW
                or DIRECT, without the CHOOSE option), the orientation will
                be automatically set to LANDSCAPE.
     The default value is "80" , if you have more charcters in the line,
     they will be igored.

  4) BACKGROUND FILE
     This is the name of the graphics backgroud file.
     It can include an optional path (i.e. F:\BACKGR\INVOICE), but it can
     not use long file names. It has to be a .WMF file (Windows Meta File)
     The extension is not required ( i.e.: C:\Program Files\sfondo.WMF
     can be inserted as C:\Progra~1\sfondo )
     If there is no NOMEFILE.CFG or SFONDO.WMF doesn't exist, no backgroud
     will be used.


KNOWN PROBLEMS
==============
- If configuring PRINTFIL trought the menu items your Windows version
  encounter an error on module USER.EXE, stopping PRINTFIL execution,
  then you have to update the CTL3D.DLL file.
  If you don't want to overwrite the DLL stored in WINDOWS\SYSTEM, you
  can copy the updated DLL in the same directory where PRINTFIL was
  installed.

- If you zoom a page when printing PREVIEW, and the page contains a
  background image (.WMF), sometimes the image is not correctly
  zoomed.
  However, if you print the page, it will be right.

- If you run PRINTFIL in Windows 9x, you can see it in the taskbar
  (near the clock). In other Windows versions, included NT and 2000,
  you can find it in the application bar (near the START button).


Other notes
===========
We are sure that PRINTFIL will like you and will give new power to your
applications. This software is continuosly upgraded to allow you to
develop applications more and more powerful, and over different O.S.
We are always very happy to know your opinions about this software,
comments, suggests or requests for new features to include on the next
release.
Than, if you want to share your opinions with us, or if you need tecnical
support, not exitate to write to printfil@guolo.com . We do all our best
to answer rapidly.

Thankyou for choosing PRINTFIL.
