Print Preview

Collect!'s Print Preview screen displays the report or letter you are about to print. You can preview your letters and Reports before printing them. This enables you to verify results quickly without wasting time and paper printing drafts to the printer. You can also use the Print Preview "Ruler" feature to map out exact positions on complex reports and forms.

The Print Preview display is identical to the results you will get when you actually print. Margins, fonts, images and even colors, display exactly as they will look when the report is printed to the printer.

This choice is available whenever you select Printer in the Print Report dialog.

Print Preview Option

Select Preview with a dot in the radio button and this will display your report or letter in the Print Preview screen when you print it.

Print Preview Default View

Use the Preview Controls to view your report or print it. You can maximize the screen for more viewing area. Use the scroll bars to move around the screen. If you have a Wheel Mouse, there are several shortcuts using your mouse, to move around in the Print Preview screen. All of these options are outlined below.

Print Preview Controls

These controls are at the top of the Print Preview screen.

Maximize

Locate the small squares in the upper right hand of the Print Preview screen. Select the middle square to maximize your viewing area.

Scroll Bars

When a scroll bar is visible, you can drag the bar selector to move up and down or left to right in the Print Preview.

Preview Controls

PAGE

Enter a page number to jump to that page in a multi-page report. Alternatively, you can use the up and down arrows to select a page to view.

Collect! will only accept positive page numbers. If you type in a negative number, Collect! will ignore it.

ZOOM

Use the Zoom feature to enlarge or shrink the page you are viewing. This is useful for focusing on details in Zoom In mode [+] or for viewing the total page layout in Zoom Out mode [-]. Each time you select the plus button [+], the image will enlarge one more time. Each time you select the minus button [-] the image will shrink one more time.

Select the Print button to print your report or letter to the printer.

YES - prints to printer

NO - stays on the Print Preview

CANCEL - closes the Print Preview screen

Wheel Mouse

If you have a mouse with a wheel, you can use this for easily navigating around in the Print Preview screen. The shortcuts are outlined below.

Hold down the RIGHT MOUSE BUTTON and turn the WHEEL to ZOOM IN and ZOOM OUT.

Hold down the CTRL key on your Keyboard and turn the WHEEL to SCROLL HORIZONTALLY over your report.

Hold down the SHIFT key on your keyboard and turn the WHEEL to scroll through the PAGES in your report.

Printable Area

Press m on your keyboard when viewing the Print Preview. This will display a dotted line indicating the printable area supported by your printer.

Ruler

Press r on your keyboard as soon as the Print Preview displays. This will open a Ruler with coordinates. Use your mouse to drag the crosshairs and look in the title bar for the exact coordinates. You can use these in device context commands such as @POS and @IMG.

Print Preview Ruler with Coordinates

Please refer to Help topic, How To Position Text And Graphics, for details.

Limitations

Print Preview display depends on system resources. If you are printing a plain letter, you can probably display up to 999 pages. If you are printing reports with bitmaps, logos, and so forth, you may find that the images do not display after printing 50 or 60 reports. This all depends upon your operating system resources. Collect! simply outputs to the Print Preview using the available memory on your computer.

Print Preview is intended for reviewing printed output for design and content. Please do not attempt to preview an entire daily letter batch to Print Preview.