APPENDIX 2 -
e-PALLET : Integrated email of specifications.
(Includes Introduction, How it Works, Installation, Additional Questions)
This section described a new low cost easy to use add-on function for PALLETMANAGER that enables users to email palletisation specifications directly from within the application in a format identical to that normally produced on the printer.
This is NOT provided as part of the web download. You can simply download PDF Machine White for free www.broadgun.com .
If you need to do more complex work with PDF files then do consider their other excellent products.
Alternatively your company may already have a licence for a product from (for example) Adobe which produced PDF files from Windows applications, or a product such as PrimoPDF. Such products are likely to be suitable for use as an alternative to produce the required PDF output file.
The email attachment produced uses the widely popular Adobe PDF format - already in extensive use for web pages - e.g. the download of all the UK tax forms! - and simply requires the users to have installed the free Adobe Reader. A majority of PC's are likely to already have this installed or it can be downloaded from Adobe.
Normally PALLETMANAGER users might print out a specification and then if required fax this to one or more locations.
When a suitable PDF program is installed and ANY of the Printout Report buttons Ti/High / Palspec / Stacking / Elevation / Collation is selected then normally a single page report will be produced and can be output to the installed PDF program rather than to a real physical printer. A PDF file is created and can be saved to disk for later printing or emailing as required.
The single button EMail can be used to 'bundle together' the Palspec, Stacking, Elevation and Collation reports together as a single file (containing 3 or 4 pages depending upon operating mode) and direct this to a PDF program (or to a physical printer). It does NOT include the Ti/High report as this will normally be output as a single page report using the Ti/High Print button (to printer or PDF).
Whilst PDF is a frequently used format other 'virtual graphics' printers can be used. For example Microsoft encourage (in later Office versions) the use of the Microsoft XPS driver. A similar approach can be used with such drivers, though in our experience the file sizes created are somewhat large.
For many years we have used / recommended the Broadgun product and the screens produced when this PDF driver is installed are illustrated below:
The resulting output which would 'normally' have gone to your printer is then displayed on screen in PDF format. You can then select to either save this PDF format file to disk (one way of saving specifications for future recall) and/or select Send to launch your email system with the report already set as an attachment. This is illustrated below.
The add-on requires reasonably recent print programs for your PM application (these may already be installed - see text above), together with a licenced Broadgun PDF / Email driver system. . File attachment sizes are small - typically 15k - 50k.
The first screen below shows the screen display after selecting the PDF Email option. The full report (in PDF format) is shown on-screen. You can naturally view any / all and select printouts if you wish. Then you select Send....
and the screen below (in this case Microsoft Outlook mail) is automatically launched with the attachment already set in place. You just enter the recipient details and any message and send it off!
The recipient just clicks on the attached file to see the load specification!
As described earlier the e-PALLET facility uses the popular Adobe Acrobat file format for transmission of the specifications. This provides a compact file attachment which can be read on any PC using the free Acrobat reader. It is likely that this will already be installed on many machines.
Can the default filename be changed?
Normally the filename attached to the email will have the name either PALLETMANAGER.PDF (if no product code was specified) or a filename based on the Product Code. This name may match exactly the product code, but if the code given by you involved characters which are invalid for a Windows filename then such characters will be substituted by a _ character - thus a code p1/123 would become a file named p1_123.pdf. You have the opportunity to change the name when selecting the Save and Email the specification.
Can I use the PDF printer selection without selecting the Email option?
The 'normal' PALLETMANAGER print programs may produce multiple reports. If you selected the PDF printer option without selecting Email (i.e. in a normal print sequence) then each report would generate a separate PDF file - thus you might end up with 5 or 6 different PDF files. The special PALLETMANAGER Email program bundles all the reports (except from Ti/High) together to produce a single neat PDF file.
Can I use the PDF printer selection with other programs?
You will be able to use the PDF program to email output from many other Windows applications in PDF format. It will depend on the procedure used to produce print files within each application but in general this will be possible.
Can any PDF generation program be used?
We have over the years tested a variety of programs and nearly all have worked successfully.
