How To Print Letters Directly From Web Host
This handy feature enables your Web Operators
to print letters from remote locations just as if they
were sitting in your office. You have full control over
the letters that are available for printing. When you view
an account in the Web Host, you can choose a letter
and then Preview or Print it. These options are available
on any Worksheet or Details page.
Web Host Letter Selection, Preview and Print Options
Web Host ships with three sample letters already set
up and formatted to print attractively via Web Host. You
may modify these letters as needed or add to the selection
with a few simple steps outlined below.
- Printing Letters via Web Host
- Modifying Letter Samples
- Adding Letters to the Selection List
This feature is available in CV11.0 Build 143 and
later. If you have upgraded from a previous Collect! version,
a few of your Web Host reports may have to be modified
to implement printing. Please refer to the Help
topic, How To Set Up Printing Letters Via Web Host.
Printing Letters Via Web Host
Simply log into the Web Host from your Internet browser
and go to any Account page. You will see the Letter
selection, Preview and Print options.
Web Host Letter Selection, Preview and Print Options
Select a Letter from the pick list and then select
PREVIEW to view it or PRINT to send it directly to
the printer.
Modifying Letter Samples
If you wish to change any of the information that is
printed in the sample letters, just be sure to preserve
the HTML tags and formatting and the printable
information codes for pulling information from the database.
Test print any letter that you modify.
It is always a good idea to make a copy of
any letter that you want to modify. That way, if there
are errors, you can revert back to the original. Just
highlight the report you want to work on in the
Report Definition list and select Edit from the top
menu bar. Select Copy to place a copy of the report
in the clipboard. Select Edit, Paste to paste the copy
into the list. Rename it to something unique and
carry on with your edits.
Adding Letters To The Selection List
If you would like to add letters to the default Web Host
Letter Selection list, the steps are outlined below.
- Import the reports into the Web Host Report Definition list.
Letters should be taken from the current list of
reports in your working database so that you are sure
of the output you want.
- Edit the reports for displaying as HTML.
- Update the reports.txt for letters to be printed.
Please make sure you do not use a letter
that prompts the end user to enter data, such
as a date range or a dollar amount.
Test print any letter that you add
to the list.
1. Sign into Collect! as you would normally, NOT the
Web Host. From the Collect! Report Definition list,
export the letters that you want to print via the Web Host
and then sign into Collect! in Web Host mode and
import them into the Web Host Report Definition list.
Please refer to Export A Group Of Reports and
Import A Group Of Reports for detailed steps.
2. Each of the letters imported must be edited for
printing in the Web Host. The sample letters provided in
the Web Host already have the following lines of code
in them. You must add these lines to any new letters
that you import into the list.
Place the following lines at the top of
the report body for each letter. Please make sure they
are EXACTLY as shown below.
@SETde.dbaddress = @vardbaddr
@no html
<html><body><pre>
<script>
@tvarTxt = "window.print();" if (@varprint = 2)
@tvarTxt<
</script>
Place the following line at the bottom of
the report body for each letter.
</pre></body></html>
Further formatting may be necessary to get
the spacing and font size right. You may refer to the sample
letters provided or use standard HTML tags just as you
would in other HTML pages. This would require some prior
knowledge of the HTML language and formatting principles.
3. Print the MASTER debtor letter listing
report in the Web Host. This updates the reports.txt
file in the \masterdb\html\user folder so that it includes the
new letters that were imported to be printed from the Web Host.
The reports.txt is an ASCII text file. It
simply contains a list of reports for the Letters pick list.
Summary
The Print Letters via Web Host feature enables your Web
Operators to print letters from remote locations. You have
full control over the letters that are available for printing.
Use the samples provided or import additional letters from
your Collect! reports list into the Web Host.
If you are using a version of Collect! prior to CV11.1.4.3,
or you have upgraded from a previous Collect! version 8 or
version 10 database, your Web Host may not be set up
to use this feature. Please refer to the Help
topic, How To Set Up Printing Letters Via Web Host
for details OR contact Administration at 250-391-0466
option 3 for upgrading information.
See Also
- Web Host Topics
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