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Legal Accounting 3
SECTION 7.1.3.4
- EXTERNAL VIEWER
USAGE: To setup the parameters for an external viewer.
Note: This function is only available in DOS based
environments. For Unix installations, the menu option does not appear.
DISCUSSION: Normally when you generate
a report, T.L.A. gives you the option to display the report to the screen or
print it on a printer. The screen display option normally displays in a
non-graphical screen, which cuts the report into sections that can be displayed
in 80 by 25 character chunks. This function is quick but sometimes difficult to
view because long and/or wide reports are displayed in short sections.
T.L.A. also gives you the option to display the
report on any HTML viewer, eg Internet Explorer, Netscape, etc. The report is
transformed into an HTML compatible format and the external viewer is
initiated. Because T.L.A. expects to print to non-proportional spaced printers,
the output is forced into a non-proportional character font using the <pre> command. Once initiated, the report can be read as
per normal and movement can be achieved with the mouse or cursor commands in
the normal way. Most viewers also have facilities to print to your local
printer. T.L.A. does not control this printing. The printer should be setup
from within Windows.
Note: T.L.A. has no way of killing off the viewer
once the report has been displayed. You will need to complete this task
manually. For example, in most instances you can terminate the viewer with <alt><F4> or <alt><f><c> or <alt><f><x>. If you fail to do this,
each new call to the viewer will result in a new instance of the program, which
will eventually fill-up all available processing memory.
When you start this function, the following
questions will be asked.
ENABLE EXTERNAL VIEWER? This basically enables or disables the call to the external
program. If you enter N here, only the internal viewer will be available and
the rest of the questions are irrelevant.
NAME AND FULL PATH TO
EXTERNAL VIEWER?
Here you enter the
full (absolute) path name of the external program. For example, to used
Internet Explorer, enter c:\program
files\microsoft internet\iexplore.exe Note the spaces in the path name. Do not enter any
quotation marks. T.L.A. will insert these when calling the program.
LINES PER PAGE? It is not necessary to have page breaks in this function
because most HTML viewers are capable of printing and inserting their own page
numbers. If you do not wish to have page breaks, enter zero here. If you wish
to force page breaks (which will insert headings as per normal printing) enter
a number from 10 to 99 here representing the number of lines you wish to print
before a page break is triggered.
INITIAL
FONT SIZE? This function modifies the HTML tag <font> with a
size number. A good size is usually 2 or 3, but this depends on your screen.
Any number from 1 to 9 is valid. Most viewers allow the font to be varied once
the report is on the screen.
