Problems with using {PRINT} to send Postscript commands...

[Greg Mouning]

Hi,

I am using MS Word 97 and am having difficult with printing a simple
"Hello, World!" postscript file I wrote. Below please find the code I
use:

{PRINT \P "%!PS
<< /PageSize [612 792] >> setpagedevice
/Helvetica findfont 20 scalefont setfont
72 72 moveto
(Hello, world!) show
showpage"}

As you can see, I am trying to use the {PRINT "instructions"} syntax
as described in the "Document Automation" section regarding the field
PRINT on the MS Word Help Support weblink:

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=/support/word/usage/fields/PRINT.asp

I know this code works independently because I can tested it on
several postscript printers. And from what I have read in the archives
others have had success. Can you tell me what I am doing wrong?

Your assistance is greatly appreciated!

Regards,
Greg

 

[Jezebel]

The PRINT field is for sending print instructions *embedded* within the page
that is being printed. Your code is attempting to send an entire PS page
file; your printer is presumably throwing an error on the invalid syntax of
the file it receives as a whole. To see what's going on, set your printer to
print on port FILE:, print the document, then open the resulting PRN file in
WordPad and see what it looks like.

BTW, you don't need to go to the Microsoft site for that help information:
the exact same info is in Word's Help.

 

[Greg Mouning]

Hello Jezebel,

Thanks for your response. It appears I misunderstood the use of the
{PRINT} field command in MS Word. So let me re-phrase my question. Is
it possible to send native Postscripte code or an EPS (encapsulated
postscript) file to a postscript printer from within MS Word? My
ultimate goal is to include an EPS which contains letterheard created
from a different desktop publishing application.

Regards,
Greg

 

[Jezebel]

Yes, certainly you can do that, and indeed that's the main purpose of the
PRINT command. The problem is that the sample you posted is not a
well-formed EPS file. Check Google for any number of references to the
specification. In particular ....

QUOTE
At a minimum, it must include a header comment, %!PS-Adobe-3.0 EPSF-3.0, and
a bounding box comment, %%BoundingBox: llx lly urx ury, that describes the
bounds of the illustration. (The specification does not require the EPSF
version, but many programs will reject a file that does not have it.)
UNQUOTE

It must surely be a very complex letterhead for this to be a good approach.
With most publishing applications, a simpler method is to select the
letterhead in the original and save as a GIF, then import that into Word --
with the added advantage that you can actually see what you're going to get,
you're more likely to get a usable output printing to PDF, and you can email
your correspondence users without a PostScript printer.

 

[macropod]

Hi Greg,

FWIW you can also embed an EPS file directly into Word without the need for
the {PRINT} field. If needs be, you can also paste the EPS file into Word as
a link, so that any changes in the EPS file will automatically be reflected
in the Word document.

Cheers

 

[Greg Mouning]

Hi Jezebel,

Thanks for the tip on how to generate valid EPS files. My particular
project involves both postscript and EPS together. I learned through
another postscript bulletin board that it is possible to cache an EPS
file in the printer memory or on a network printer hard drive and when
I'm ready, I can call it to be executed. This method is suppose to
make printing to postscript printers more efficient. Can you or anyone
listening out there explain how this is done? As you can see, this
means I will need to know how to submit valid postscript code from
within MS Word.

Many thanks for any advice you have.

Regards,
Greg

 

[Jezebel]

My advice is, don't go there. Certainly, a cached EPS or PS file is an
extremely efficient way to print using a PostScript printer; but so what?
Unless you're printing literally hundreds of similar pages, often, printer
efficiency is not usually an issue. And the time you save in printing is
likely to be lost many many times over trying to make this work. None of the
other Windows software is designed with this kind of approach in mind, so
you'll be working against the grain, so to speak, and you're creating a
perpetual maintenance burden for yourself.

If letterheads are your concern, you really are better off sticking to
mainstream, run-of-the-mill methods.

 

[Greg Mouning]

Jezebel,

Once again I appreciate your advice and hopefully I don't sound like
I'm trying to beat a dead horse to death. It's my hope that there is
another solution available. My current project involves a mail merge
of 5000+ records. Currently we send this job to a black and white
Xerox Docutech 135 printer. The letterhead is scanned and merged along
with any image files on the printer side. The addresses are sent
separately as a 5260 Avery Label file and then everything is merged
and printed together.

Past experience has proven sending such a file across our network with
everything included is quite time consuming and inefficient. Now, we
are in the process of discontinuing this model printer and therefore
need another solution to duplicate this process. It would seem caching
an EPS file is a worthwhile solution to investigate. Any other
thoughts or options worthy of consideration?

Thanks in advance for your feedback.

-Greg