Report width of 520 characters needed

[Former Member]

Customer wants output in a plain text file where each detail line contains 520 characters. Should I attempt to find a printer driver that will allow that width, or is there another option?

Thanks.

[former_member230846 · Accepted solution]

Hi Gina,

Yes, I would recommend finding a printer driver that supports creating a custom page of that height or width.

Regards,

Wallie

[Former Member]

You shouldn't have much of a problem finding a printer driver that will allow that kind of width. Just use the smallest font you can if it comes close. HP used to have a driver that would allow several feet of width (8 or 10 if I remember correctly).

[Former Member]

Thanks for the printer driver advice. I installed the HP DesignJet 5500 driver, which is 60 inches wide, and now I can design the report I need and see the entire width of the report in Preview on my development pc. Now I need to go a step further and schedule the report on CR Server XI to email the report as a plain text file (again - 520 characters wide).

I installed the same printer driver on the server where CR Server XI is running. I created a 380 character witde test report in Crystal Reports on my development pc. I can design it and view it fine on my pc. When I upload to CR Server XI and schedule the report from InfoView as Plain Text, the output shown in InfoView and in the file that is emailed is truncated at 270 characters. I have tried all combinations for file formats and print settings on Infoview and CMC, and I've specified different values for characters per inch. I still end up with a 270 character wide report when trying to create a Plain Text file.

Is there a limitation of 274 characters for Plain Text file format? Do you have any suggestions for accomplishing this?

Note that I WAS able to successfully schedule and email the 380 character report successfully in Crystal Reports format and Rich Text format. For this reason, I think the printer driver definition is OK, and it is the Plain Text format that is the problem.

[former_member292966]

Hi,

The Plain Text format will only allow a set number of characters per line and lines per page.

Instead of using Plain Text, try using Fixed Length or CSV. Both of these are not limited to the printer driver.

Good luck,

Brian

[Former Member]

Thanks -- I went to Infoview and in Format, rather than Plain Text, I specified "Character Separated" and left the Delimiter and Separator blank. This is the closest I've seen to the result that I need. The report was not truncated, but some blank fields I need to appear as blanks did not appear at all.

You also suggested trying "Fixed Length". Where can that be specified - when designing the report, or when scheduling it on Crystal Reports Server?