Smartforms: printed output vs preview (or pdf)

[Former Member]

Hi all,

We are using SAP for a year now. I am responsible for all smartforms. My latest challenge was to print the T&C on the backside of one of the pages.

So the invoices (in this case) should be printed single sided, but on the backside of the last page (that was my own choice, no pressure here) there are T&C.

So I had my FIRST page pointing to TC_1 page (not printing but giving me a blank backside). This page points back to page FIRST.

In page FIRST at the end of the main loop, I go to my last page (TC_2), where T&C are printed.

Works very well, no questions there (though every comment is welcome).

But, whenever you just preview the same invoice, you see the blank pages. The same when creating a (local) pdf. It would be nice that in case of preview or (local) pdf everything is single sided. Even T&C do not have to be shown.

Is there any way, preferrable without have to maintain two different smartforms for my invoices?

Thanks in advance.

Regards,

Karin

[alexander_bolloni]

Hi Karin,

well, you have inserted blank pages in the form output, so PDF and preview will display them.

I guess this was done because the printer is set to duplex printing by default and thus you need to skip the backside of each page (save the last with the T+C) via a blank page in the output.

The only way I can think of that could possibly avoid  blank pages in preview would be to actually not format any blank pages in the form but switch between SIMPLEX and DUPLEX print modes within the form.
You would start out with printmode SIMPLEX for the first page, second page, etc. and then switch to DUPLEX for the last "regular" page (the one whose backside will receive T+C).

I have no idea whether this will work for your printer/device type;  a tricky thing is the fact that in your Smart Form, you would have to decide at the start of each regular page: "Is this going to be  the last page?"
If YES -> use a page definition with printmode = DUPLEX, if NO, use page definition with SIMPLEX .

This also applies to the very first page itself. if you have only one page (plus T+C), you have to use DUPLEX so the printer will print T+C on backside of sheet.

If you can fulfill that logic, possibly give it a try.

Regards,

  Alex

[Former Member]

Thank you Alex.

There is a slight problem with using Duplex mode from smartforms. Our printer will just print single sided anyway.

To avoid that we use a 'dedicated' printer from CUPS which is set to duplex mode. Unfortunately this means I cannot mix the two modes...