What is Print Manager?

Answer

Print Manager is a tool that enables you to send reports to a file. They can be viewed on the screen, printed, retained, and deleted at your convenience. You can also copy the file to a flat text file that will be compatible with Notepad or Wordpad on a PC. This is helpful when using the separate files created for investor reporting.

When should you use Print Manager?
You should use Print Manager with all reports, such as your monthly investor cutoff, tracking, pipeline reports, or any reports created in Data Manager. However, DO NOT use Print Manager for any print job that requires alignments, like coupons, ARM Notices, Late Notices, or statements. Saving these to files and using Print Manager to print the files will remove the format of the notice or statement.

The best news about Print Manager is you have it now, nothing to order, nothing to buy. It is available for you to use immediately.

Question

How do I use Print Manager?

Answer

To use Print Manager you must first change the printer assignment to a file name. On UNIX/DOS machines, your printer assignment is "@PCQ0" or "@PRN0." On AOS machines, your printer assignment is "@CON10" or "$LPT." To change the printer assignment to a file name, select <C>CHANGE PRINTER from the print screen. Type in the file name in place of the printer assignment. File names can be up to 20 characters on AOS and UNIX machines, e.g. xLOANACCOUNTHISTORY, but you are limited to 8.3 characters on DOS machines, e.g. xLNACCT.HIS.

How you name your files will be very important when you want to retrieve them later. It is very important that your files or reports begin with an X or Z then your unique naming convention. Why? This makes finding and deleting your reports very easy by sorting all X or Z. Also, if you happened to name your files exactly as a file used by MC, you can have problems or maybe even lose data. MC never uses the X and the Z is only used for laser forms sent to you waiting to be loaded.

For example, if the Monthly Cutoff Report is run and the file is named "xCutoff" and I run the next month's report and call it "xCutoff" again, the program does not write over the previous report but appends to it. The program never writes over but always appends to the file. On UNIX machines, you might want to call the file "xCutoffSept02" then "xCutoffOct02," etc. This makes separate files that are easily identified by the month. You should give some thought as to how best to name the files for the Print Manager.

After you have typed in the file name, press <P>PRINT. Rather than being printed, the report will be saved to the file name you have entered and you will exit from the print screen. Press <SCF2> (or <ALTF2> on a PC) and the Print Manager screen will be displayed. After a file has been viewed or printed through the Print Manger once, the files will be displayed. From the Print Manager, you can print the file ( <P>), view it on the screen (<D>), delete it (<Y> on exit), etc.

When you display a report on the screen through Print Manager, you have many useful features available. If you just want totals, you can view the report without printing it. You can move up and down the report one line at a time (<F2>) or one page at a time (<SF2>), automatically go to the top (<G> <T>) or bottom (<G> <B>) of the report or any page in between (<G> page number), and print one page or multiple pages (<F4> page number, <P>), or the entire report (<F4> <P>). You can search the report for any criteria, such as a loan number, name, Social Security Number, etc., by using the <S> option.

When using the option to <F>COPY TO FLAT TEXT FILE, the file can be transferred to your PC using the Misc File Transfers option of EDI-Plus. The file location will be C:\Program Files\EdiPlus\Inbox.

If the operator does not want anyone to have the ability to delete a file from Print Manager, a block can be put on the file at anytime as the file is accessed . After entering the file name, select the <O> option. A P will appear in the Protect column of the file listing. Once this is done, the file can only be deleted through the operating system. The Protect option cannot be removed from the Print Manager.