Manual InterForm400 English 2023

This AFC function merge a spooled file with an overlay or an overlay selector, and creates a merged spooled file for printing.

 

This video explains how to add a merge function in Auto Forms Control:

 

 

The first screen looks like this:

 

 

The entry fields are explained below:

 

Output queue/library                        

The queue to receive the merged spooled file. If a specific queue and printer type has been defined on the header screen for the AFC output queue setup, the keyword *DEFAULT is preset for this field. This is overwritten when entering a queue and a library here. Note that the keyword *DEFAULT apply to both output queue, library and printer type.

 

You can also type *USER for this field. With this value the merged spooled file will be created on the output queue specified for this user (the spooled file owner) in option 8. User output queue and in this way the merged spooled files are distributed to the individual users. If the user profile is not found, the default output output queue will be used. If both the user is not found, and there is no default output queue, then a message is issued in the Auto Form Control job:

 

 

To proceed you can then either add the specific user in the table, or add a default output queue for the AFC job and answer ‘R’ or ignore the input spooled file with ‘I’.

 

 

NOTE:  *USER for the output queue is not allowed for the Light version.

 

 

Printer type                

The printer type used for the above printer. Note that the keywords *DEFAULT and *USER entered for output queue will apply for this setting as well, i.e. the setting for Printer type from the previous screen will be used for *DEFAULT and the printer type specified on the user list will be used for *USER.

 

Unicode output

State *YES if you want the merged spooled file always to be a unicode spooled file (that is useful if you e.g. have unicode text constants to be used with a normal non unicode spooled file as input).

 

If you use *INPUT the merged spooled file will be unicode only, if the input spooled file is a unicode spooled file i.e. has USRDFNOPT(‘IF-UCS2').  

 

Merge overprint lines

Specifies, that overprinted lines will be printed as one line.

 

Find overlay in forms type table

Stating Y will cause the Forms type table to be used for the form type stated for this entry. If stating N you will get the below screen.

 

In the following screen the definitions for the overlay are entered:

 

 

 

Overlay name                

The Overlay you want to merge with. Use F4 to get a list

 

File set

The file set containing the above overlay.Use F4 to get a list.

 

Overlay selector

If the above is not filled in, it means you intend to use an overlay selector in order to search the spool data for special conditions, that will select the overlay.

 

Primary/Secondary Set        

This option will decide if the Primary or the Secondary set of copies of an overlay are to be processed. The two sets of copies are defined in Copy Management, if the Global Setting, Copy Management is set to Y. If this setting is N for the overlay, the overlay is regarded as Primary. *PRI is default for this option.

 

Form Type

The Form type of the resulting print out. It is recommended to use *STD (or another common value) for all output in order to avoid prompting for change of forms from the queue.

 

Copies                

You can decide how many exact duplicates you want of each page in the spool entry. Note that if you want different contents for the duplicates you must define this in Copy Management for the overlay, or you can define another sequence line in this AFC definition which processes the same spool entry once more but with a different overlay.

 

This screen is only shown if you are merging with an overlay or overlay selector for a label printer (i.e. Zebra):

 

                                                                               

                                                                               

Labels / Continuous

Select 1=Labels if the media contains of separate labels. select 2=Continuous if the media is not separated into labels (in this case you would probably select 4=Cut for the print mode parameter).

 

Media type

Select 1=Termo transfer if you use a non heat sensitive media otherwise use option 2=Transfer media.

 

Print mode                

1=Tear off mean that you will manually tear of the labels. 2=Rewind can be used for rewinding all printed labels onto another roll. This requires special hardware installed.  

3= Peel off will print only one label at a time waiting for the current label to be peeled off. (This also requires additional hardware).

4=Cut (requires hardware cutter) normally cuts the media for each print job unless you use 2=Continuous - then 4=Cut will cut out each label.

 

In the following screen the spool attributes for the final output are entered:

 

 

 

Output spooled file name

This entry sets the spool file name. If this field is blank the new spooled file will be named APF3812. *INPUT sets the name of the new spooled file to the same as the name of the input spooled file.

 

User data

You can change the spool file description of the resulting print data, so the spool file can be located on the output queue. By entering *PAGES, InterForm400® will display the number of pages included in the output from the merge process in the User data field. When inserting the keyword *PAGES the following field will be displayed:

 

 

Here you can type in a help text which will be added before the number of pages as the first 4 characters in the user data field. *JOB or *USER can also be specified making the user data field contain either the job name or the user profile of the original spool file.

 

Separator Drawer

See here for explanation. Type *NONE to avoid a separator page.

 

Hold output spooled file

This affects the status of the output spooled file on the queue.

 

Save output spooled file

This will affect the spool file attribute SAVE of the output spooled file.

 

Archive in InfoStore/400

InterForm400 automatically detects if InfoStore/400 is installed. If that is the case, then this (and the next) option emerges enabling direct archiving from InterForm400® in InfoStore/400. Here you can decide to archive the merged PCL spool file or both the PCL file and the original SCS spool file.

Archive ID

Archive ID in InfoStore/400, where the spool files are to be stored.

 

InfoStore/400 is an archiving system developed by Solitas AG.

 

When you press Enter you see the final entry screen for the merge function:

 

 

On this screen you can add a user defined PJL sequence to the merged result.

 

The setup below is only used if you merge into a PCL spooled file. If you merge into ZPL, IDP or IPL, then this setting is ignored.

 

The default value is User defined PJL=*NO, which tells InterForm400 not to add any user defined PJL commands to the start of the print data stream. Please note, that PJL codes require, that you use one of the PJL printer types for the merge, and that a start PJL print data stream like selected here cannot be combined with stapling.

 

If you select, User defined PJL=*YES, then you can select a printer group (printers, that share the same PJL commands) and then select between the PJL functions, that you have defined for this printer group.