Create and Use PCL Forms Overlay Macros
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Download your fully functional Forms Electric PCL
Evaluation here (109Kb)
Problems?
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Download the Forms Electric PCL User
Guide in PDF (Portable Document Format) here (394Kb)
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Take a look at some of the Frequently Asked Questions on our
Help page
Forms Electric ® PCL
Use your preferred Windows applications to create Hewlett-Packard
(PCL) forms overlay macros, complete with TrueType fonts and graphics.
Forms Electric enables macros to be downloaded and merged from within
most Windows printing applications, including Word, Access, Visual Basic
and Sage - perfect for mail-merges and accounting runs. Compatible with
Hewlett-Packard LaserJet PCL printers and all other printers with true
PCL4, PCL5 or PCL5e emulation, including Lexmark, Kyocera, QMS, Xerox
and others. Use your overlays outside of Windows with DOS, UNIX, Xerox
and AS/400 applications. Distribute overlay masters around your network
for production printing.
Now the benefits of forms overlay with
LaserJet printers are available from within Microsoft Windows
Forms Electric enables you to create forms overlay masters and
over-print data from your preferred Windows applications. Use Existing
Applications to Create Form Masters. No need to invest in new software
or training! Use any Windows printing application to originate your form
masters. Design within PageMaker, Word for Windows, CorelDRAW and other
forms related software.
Create LaserJet PCL overlays in Windows. Forms Electric integrates
seamlessly with Windows and the LaserJet printer drivers to create forms
overlays files directly from the originating Windows application.
TrueType and other downloadable fonts automatically handled. No
complicated Windows installation or configuration required.
Use overlays with Windows applications. Download and merge forms
from within Windows printing applications. Use master letters for mail
shot runs, create accounting overlay forms for invoice and statement
prints. Keep frequently used letterheads, signatures and company logos
on-line for rapid use.
Use overlays with DOS and non-PC applications. Use your overlays in
DOS based applications, complete with Windows TrueType fonts and
graphics. No need for Windows to be present to use previously created
overlays. Use the power and flexibility of Windows to create high
quality forms masters - use with existing proven DOS applications to
remain in total control!
Upload to host servers for production printing. Form overlays can be
uploaded to your IBM / Hewlett-Packard / UNIX mini or mainframe hosts
for volume production printing, complete with all fonts used. Use your
existing file transfer software. Distribute overlay masters around your
network. Design locally - print remotely!
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Creates LaserJet PCL forms overlay macros interactively within
Windows 95, 98 and ME. Use the supplied command line utilities to
create PCL macros on NT, 2000 and XP
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Use your existing applications
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Ideal for use with UNIX and AS/400 systems
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Download your fully functional Forms Electric
Evaluation here (109Kb)
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Use Visual PCL/2 to view and fax
your LaserJet PCL print files on-screen in Windows
-
Take a look at some of the Frequently Asked Questions on our
Help page
Colour Forms Overlay Macros?
You can only use colour PCL5C commands in overlay macros provided
that you do not use HP-GL/2 vector graphics also. This is due to
firmware limitations in the HP Color LaserJet printers, not due to Forms
Electric. PCL5C has real problems using colour commands and HP-GL/2
graphics in overlay macros at the same time. Unfortunately most Windows
Color LaserJet printer drivers output HP-GL/2 so it is not possible to
use these drivers with Forms Electric to create colour macros.
Creating PCL Forms Overlay at the "DOS" Command Prompt
You can use the command line Pcl2mac.exe
utility that comes with Forms Electric to create your forms overlay
macros at the command prompt. Pcl2mac.exe is
available with the full retail version of Forms Electric only
and can be found in the Forms Electric program directory where the
Download.exe utility also is.
You need to print your form document to FILE (from Word, PageMaker
etc.) using an HP LaserJet PCL5/5e compatible printer driver. A standard
LaserJet III or 4 driver should do. Let's say you've printed to Test.prn.
Then at a "DOS" command prompt you would then run the Pcl2mac utility to
generate the form contents:-
C> Pcl2mac test.prn
This example creates the macro file Test.ovl (and possibly also a
soft font file Test.fnt). You then run the Forms Electric Download
utility to assign a PCL macro id (identifying number, eg. 1):-
C> Download test.ovl /i:1 /o:test.mac
(Note that Pcl2mac and Download are 16 bit DOS applications so you
must use "short" 8.3 style filenames.) Test.mac should then contain all
you need and you can download it to your printer using:-
C> copy /b test.mac LPT1
or
C> copy /b test.mac \\yourservername\yourprintershare
Having problems installing or running the
Forms Electric evaluation?
Currently the "GUI" interactive portions of
Forms Electric only work with Windows 95, 98 and ME. This is
because the driver/spooler subsystem on true 32 bit Windows is very
different.
You need to be setup to print with a Windows
LaserJet PCL4, PCL5 or PCL5e compatible printer driver,
not PCL6 Enhanced. This is very important. Despite it's similar name
PCL6 is as different to PCL5 as PostScript is. Hewlett-Packard invented
PCL6 (formerly named PCL-XL) for additional compatibility when printing
from Windows. Printers that support PCL6 also support PCL5/5e so you can
use these drivers with confidence.
Windows NT, 2000 and XP
The command line portions of Forms
Electric, Download.exe and Pcl2mac.exe, do work fine with Windows
NT, 2000 and XP now. If you have a LaserJet PCL5 or PCL5e
compatible printer driver installed and can print to FILE then all
the tools for creating PCL forms overlay macros are available. To
create a PCL overlay macro at the command prompt please follow the
instructions detailed in the section above headed "Creating PCL
Forms Overlay at the DOS Command Prompt".
Windows 95, 98 and ME
Make absolutely sure that you have only one copy of
FORMELEC.INI
on your PC and that it is in your Windows directory (nowhere else)
where WIN.INI also is.
You can add support for the latest LaserJet printers by updating
FORMELEC.INI. A quick way to open Forms Electric's .INI file in
Notepad is to use the Windows Start button,
select Run and type in
Formelec.ini then press Enter.
With this file loaded in Notepad update the [Drivers] section to
read:-
[Drivers]
HPPCL.DRV=1
HPPCL5A.DRV=1
HPPCL5C.DRV=1
HPPCL5E.DRV=1
HPPCL5F.DRV=1
HPPCL5G.DRV=1
HPLJ4QP.DLL=1
HP5SI.DRV=1
HPBPCLA.DRV=1
XRX4220.DRV=1
UNIDRV.DLL=2
Forms Electric should now work well with the LaserJet 4000, 5000
and 8000 printers, as well as others, on Windows 95, 98 and ME.
Remember to use a PCL5 or PCL5e printer driver, not PCL6.
If all else fails, please send us your FORMELEC.INI file and the
[devices] section from WIN.INI.
This should be enough to get you going. There are some useful tips
on our Help page also.
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Do you spend hours waiting for your direct mail to print?
Forms Electric lets you store the body of your letters as templates
in the printer itself. Your mail-merge software then needs only print
the data that changes from page to page, such as the recipient name and
address. The printer and not the PC then merges the letter with the
variable data producing the finished documents.
This simple technique, called forms overlay, drastically reduces
both the amount of work the computer needs to do and the amount of data
to be sent to the printer. The result is that the PC frees up quicker,
so you can get on with other work, and the printer processes the job
faster. You can often print complex mail-merges at close to the rated
speed of the printer!
One of our customers won an order to laser print over 1 million
letters in four months as part of a direct mail campaign for a cash and
carry chain. Using just Word mail-merge they calculated there simply
weren't enough hours in the day with their four midrange printers! By
using Forms Electric they successfully solved their problem, finished in
time and have since received follow-on contracts.
Forms Electric is powerful yet easy to use, compatible with Windows
95 and 98. Use standard programs, such as Word and PageMaker, to design
your document templates and over print data from Access, FoxPro, Word
and many other applications. Supported printers include the full
Hewlett-Packard LaserJet range, QMS, Kyocera and other true PCL
compatibles.
Independent Computer Shopper Review
"WHILE WINDOWS DATABASES such as Access can print anything you want
courtesy of OLE, creating your own stationery is not as easy as it could
be. The layout capabilities are often limited, and adding graphics to
files can result in files that print slowly and take up large amounts of
space. For instance, on one system I worked on, adding a simple icon to
Word files took them from around 30K to over 1Mb!
Forms Electric is a way around this. It utilises the fact that HP
LaserJet printers will accept an overlay as well as the page being
printed. You design overlays using any Windows package such as Word,
Paintbrush, CorelDRAW or whatever. You can then print files in the
normal way from any Windows application, having nominated a suitable
overlay using Forms Electric. This reduces the size of the files, and by
sending an overlay once at the start of a print job you can send just
the information that changes from copy to copy, so getting your invoices
out much quicker! Another use for database users would be to design
letters used for mailmerge in your word processor, and print that as the
overlay, before adding just the name and address details on a letter by
letter basis. You can also have all the overlays downloaded to the
printer on startup, so that the printing process runs much faster
throughout the rest of the day. Forms Electric also comes with sample
clip art showing the types of things you might use as overlays, and you
also get instructions for using it from DOS.
Forms Electric costs £59.95*, but you can get a free evaluation copy
to try out This is a full version, but all the overlays show the
copyright notice of visual Software. However, at least you can test out
what the software offers and see whether it works in your situation. The
evaluation disk, as well as more details, are available from Visual
Software direct."
* Please refer to our current Price List
for actual pricing
Forms Electric ® XES
Forms Electric XES enables you to create and use electronic forms on
your Xerox 4235 printer quickly and easily from any Windows printing
application! Forms Electric XES integrates seamlessly with Windows and
the Xerox 4235 (XDPM) printer driver to enable electronic forms creation
direct from originating Windows applications. Forms are stored locally
on the printer's internal hard disk. TrueType fonts and graphics are
automatically handled. No complicated Windows installation or
configuration required.
Merge forms stored on the printer's internal hard disk with output
from Windows printing applications. Use master letters for
word-processor or database mailshot runs, create accounting overlay
forms for invoice and statement prints. Keep frequently used
letterheads, signatures and company logos on-line for rapid use. No need
to invest in new software or training! Use any Windows printing
application to originate your form masters. Design within PageMaker,
Word for Windows, CorelDRAW or any other forms related software.
Utilise form overlays from your IBM / Hewlett-Packard / UNIX mini or
mainframe hosts for volume production printing, complete with all fonts
and graphics used. Design locally - print remotely!
Forms Electric ® 42xx MRP
Forms Electric 42xx MRP enables you to use electronic forms on your
Xerox 4220 or 4230 PostScript printer quickly and easily from any
Windows printing application! Forms Electric 42xx MRP integrates
seamlessly with Windows and the Xerox PostScript printer driver to
enable electronic forms usage direct from originating Windows
applications. Forms are stored locally on the printer's internal hard
disk. TrueType fonts and graphics are automatically handled. No
complicated Windows installation or configuration required.
Merge forms stored on the printer's internal hard disk with output
from Windows printing applications. Use master letters for
word-processor or database mailshot runs, create accounting overlay
forms for invoice and statement prints. Keep frequently used
letterheads, signatures and company logos on-line for rapid use. No need
to invest in new software or training! Use any Windows printing
application to originate your form masters. Design within PageMaker,
Word for Windows, CorelDRAW or any other forms related software. |
