{"id":741,"date":"2008-02-29T03:45:17","date_gmt":"2008-02-29T09:45:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mrc-productivity.com\/legacy\/?page_id=741"},"modified":"2014-07-15T08:45:06","modified_gmt":"2014-07-15T13:45:06","slug":"converting-reports-to-pdf","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.mrc-productivity.com\/legacy\/deprecated-documentation\/converting-reports-to-pdf","title":{"rendered":"Output Reports to PDF"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

Output Reports to PDF<\/h1>\n

m-Power Reports include the option to output to PDF. The painting for the PDF comes directly from the HTML presentation layer. Therefore, m-Painter is the WYSIWYG editor for HTML, Formatted Excel, and PDF.<\/p>\n

Options (shown with default)<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Page Size and Orientation: Portrait (8.5in x 11in) — (For landscape, use 11in x 8.5in)<\/li>\n
  2. Outside Border Page Margin (.5 in)<\/li>\n
  3. Border (thin solid black)<\/li>\n
  4. Inside Border Page Margin Padding (.0 in)<\/li>\n
  5. Footer (Page 1 of 100)<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    These can all be changed per application by tweaking the generated HTML output. To modify these settings from their default, open m-Painter, toggle to the source, and change the PDF settings within the style tag.<\/p>\n

    Note:<\/strong> You can now change the orientation of your PDF in Application Properties. To change this, open the properties and toggle to the Print Optimized tab. Look for the page_orientation property. Use this property to switch between orientation layouts.<\/p>\n

    Issues to Consider:<\/p>\n

      \n
    1. The conversion from HTML to PDF requires strictly-formed<\/strong> HTML. Simply put, this means that all HTML tags must be complete. For example, for every begin-table tag (<table><\/code>), there must be a corresponding end-table tag (<\/table><\/code>). Even though the HTML might render acceptably in a browser, it might not be complete enough for the conversion from HTML to PDF. If there is a problem with the HTML, you will see an appropriate error message when you attempt to create the PDF output, including some mention of the incomplete tag.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      Note:<\/strong> For users with data dictionaries older than October 2007, you will need to make two small changes to your Header file. Specifically look for the lines that begin with < img<\/code> and end with ><\/code>.<\/p>\n

      Be sure to end them with \/><\/code>. This ensures that the IMG tag is complete and will minimize the chance of generating an error message on the conversion. For example:<\/p>\n

        \n
      1. Change this
        \n< img src =\"\/mrcjava\/image\/ top.jpg \" border=\"0\" ><\/code>
        \nto read this:
        \n< img src =\"\/mrcjava\/image\/ top.jpg \" border=\"0\" \/><\/code>
        \nBy default, there are two images in the mrc header. Be sure to change both of them.<\/li>\n
      2. In your footer file, you will see one table referenced as <TABLE><\/code>, please change this to read <table><\/code>.<\/li>\n
      3. If you will include images in the PDF output, the best practice is to specifically specify the image alignment. This means using align=\"left\"<\/code> or align=\"right\"<\/code> on the image tag. This should correct any problems you see with image alignment or unwanted spacing gaps.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

        Repeating images used in backgrounds might cause performance problems. The performance problem appears in that it takes longer for the PDF to be created, and any PDF Reader takes a long time to both render and print the output. For the fastest possible responses, consider using a simple color for a background instead of an image. Specifically, in the inline style sheet, mrc_servlet_stylesheet_css.html, consider changing this line:<\/p>\n

        . back { color : black; background-image: url(\"\/mrcjava\/image\/back.gif\"); font: 8pt verdana ;}<\/code><\/p>\n

        To something like this:<\/p>\n

        . back { color : black; background: #d8d8d8 ; font: 8pt verdana ;}<\/code><\/p>\n

        To control the maximum number of rows on each page of the PDF output, set the max_rows parameter on the Print-Optimized tab in the Application Properties.<\/p>\n

         <\/p>\n

        <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

        Output Reports to PDF m-Power Reports include the option to output to PDF. The painting for the PDF comes directly from the HTML presentation layer. Therefore, m-Painter is the WYSIWYG editor for HTML, Formatted Excel, and PDF. Options (shown with default) Page Size and Orientation: Portrait (8.5in x 11in) — (For landscape, use 11in x […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":5724,"menu_order":6,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-741","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mrc-productivity.com\/legacy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/741","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mrc-productivity.com\/legacy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mrc-productivity.com\/legacy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mrc-productivity.com\/legacy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mrc-productivity.com\/legacy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=741"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/www.mrc-productivity.com\/legacy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/741\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7770,"href":"https:\/\/www.mrc-productivity.com\/legacy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/741\/revisions\/7770"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mrc-productivity.com\/legacy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/5724"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mrc-productivity.com\/legacy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=741"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}