This is actually in response to a request for assistance in another discussion group. I thought it might be sufficiently generally informative that I'm starting a separate thread.
The purpose for printing to a text printer is to assist in exporting information to Excel for further manipulation until such time as QMEM is upgraded to do this transfer natively.
First: Set up the text printer.
Click the "Start" menu.
Click "Printers and Faxes"
Under "Printer Tasks" click "Add a printer".
The "Add Printer Wizard" will start.
Click "Next"
Make sure that "Local printer attached to this computer" is selected and that the "Automatically detect and install my Plug and Play printer" is unchecked.
Click "Next"
Make sure that "Use the following port" is selected.
Choose the "FILE: (Print to File)" port from the drop down box.
Click "Next"
The next window asks you to select the manufacturer and model of printer.
Select "Generic" from the list of manufacturers.
Select "Generic / Text Only" from the list of printers
Click "Next"
The next window asks you for a name for your printer. The specific name you use is relatively unimportant.
For the printer name, type in "TextFilePrinter".
Make sure that "Do you want to use this printer as the default printer?" has the "No" option selected.
Click "Next"
Make sure that "Do not share this printer" is selected.
Click "Next"
Make sure that "Do you want to print a test page" has the option "No" selected.
Click "Next"
Click "Finish"
Congratulations, Step 1 is done.
Step 2: Printing to your new printer.
Start QMEM.
Run a report. As my example, I'm running the "Cost Calculator" for Expenses for All People, All Reasons, All Providers, Any Status, Any Insurance, and calendar year 2006.
Click the printer icon in the upper right corner of the screen.
Select "TextFilePrinter" from the drop down of printers.
Click "OK"
A dialog box will pop up asking for a file name. However, this will most likely "pop-under" and you'll have to look for the task icon titled "Printing" in your task bar.
Supply a file name. For the example, I'll use "C:\test_qmem_rpt.txt". Note: You must NOT use the quotes as this will cause an error message to pop up.
Congratulations, you just completed step 2.
Unfortunately, from this point out, I'm leaving you on your own as the process of fixing the garbage that this can produce is highly dependent on your data, mildly dependant on your report formatting before you begin, and further dependant on some factors that I haven't been able to figure out yet.
Re: Printing to a text printer on Windows XP Dec 18, 2006 03:17 am
Thanks for the detailed procedure. It certainly works as an interim process but, as you indicated, it leaves a very cluttered text data set to clean up.
I know this has been discussed a number of times ... but wouldn't it be great if reports could simply be exported to a delimited format (tab, comma, etc.) for easy import into Excel? Hopefully, it's a feature somewhere in the development cycle. :-)
