ACC: Hints for Using Generic Print Driver with Forms or Reports (92815)

SUMMARY

One way to get Microsoft Access output from forms or reports into a text file is to use the Windows Generic print driver and print to a file. However, using the Generic print driver (TTY.DRV) can be a little tricky. Listed below are some hints on how to set up your forms and reports for the Generic print driver.

MORE INFORMATION

The Windows Generic print driver simulates a line-oriented printer with a fixed pitch font, like a TTY device or a line printer. Because of this, it can only print text, and it can only position the text on a grid that is 10 characters per inch in the horizontal direction and 6 lines per inch in the vertical direction. (By contrast, most Windows print drivers can position text on any pixel position.)

This means that any form or report using the Generic print driver to create a text file should be laid out so that everything lines up with this character grid.

Here are some considerations for the form or report layout:

Ensure that each section of your report has a height that is an integral multiple of 1/6".
Lay out the text items in your report such that each falls on 1/6" boundaries.
Because the default hardware font for most printers is a Courier 10cpi font, you should set the font for all of your text items to be Courier 10.
Do not use Bold fonts because they will appear three times in your output. (The Generic driver simulates bold text by overstriking.)

Here are some problems that frequently occur when using the Generic print driver to do text output:

Blank lines appear in the output--text items or sections are slightly farther apart than 1/6".
Overlapped lines appear in the output--text items or sections are slightly closer together than 1/6"
Text appears three times in the output--text is formatted as Bold.