Re: Virtual PDF-printer for PPC2003


"WebDoc" <WebDoc@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:1FD9BEC5-87CB-496C-B420-D9EED4D82F44@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Thank you all for your suggestions.
I have to comment on Todds comment though:
There is definetely a print out command in the PPC2003, but for some
reason
it is limited to either IR or Bluetooth devices. Both are to limited to be
useful for my needs, the time it takes to print otu over IR is
disturbingly
long...

But those print options are built into the software, correct? A big problem
is that there's no NATIVE printing support in the PocketPC OS- it's kind of
like old DOS computers- any printing support must be part of the PROGRAM
itself, unlike (PC) Windows, which handles all of that so any program can
print to "Windows" and Windows itself interfaces to any supported printer.
(Remember in the DOS days you had to tell each program what kind of printer
you had, and hoped the program supported whatever oddball printer you owned!
In Windows, any program that prints can print to whatever printer you have a
Windows driver for without any additional setup.)

So even if you found a Virtual PDF-printer for the PPC, it wouldn't
necessarily be able to print anything from your specific application- the
PDF driver would have to be part of your app (or a compatible plug-in.)

Take the Field Software printing products for example (don't get excited-
they don't print to PDF!)- they are written to print specific PPC files
(e-mail, Word/Excel docs, IE pages, etc.) to a specific set of printers they
support. They can't import data directly from any old application and print
it. (Except through screen capture which is rarely useful due to the low
res.) Similarly, any mass-market "generic" virtual PDF printer would have
to be designed the same way- the app would have to parse the data you wanted
to convert to PDF itself, and generate the resulting file.

Unless a virtual PDF printer was specifically made to directly import
whatever proprietary format Office Medic uses on the PPC, it wouldn't be
able to convert your data to PDF. The various PDF printers for PCs have it
easy by comparision- they only have to convert a single format to PDF- the
generic "Windows printer" format any and all Windows apps generate (that
Windows itself passes to the driver software for Windows printers.)

As I see it, you're up the proverbial creek unless the vendor (QRS?) decides
to add additional ways to output the information besides the current choices
of sync-to-PC, and print to IR/BT. Obviously, if they added an output to
PDF format you'd have it made. But alternatively, if they could add an
output to Word, Excel, (or even JPG or TIFF), then you'd have a document
that could be e-mailed as an attachment or faxed via a fax-to-email service.
For example, I can "create"a PDF of any Word, Excel, or graphics file on my
PPC right now by "faxing" it to myself via my e-mail-to-Fax service. The
service takes my attachment, faxes it to my fax number, which is actually a
fax-to-e-mail service which e-mails it, as a PDF, back to my PPC. The round
trip can take up to 5 minutes, however, and is certainly akward (which makes
this unsuitable for your time/complexity of use parameters!)

Sadly, then, your problem here is two-fold- your software wasn't designed to
output the data except to a handful of specific, (and in your case, woefully
incomplete!) options , and that the PPC doesn't follow the Windows paradigm
of allowing any data to be printed to a "system printer" (either real or
virtual) like "real" Windows does. This probably limits you a
vendor-supplied solution, or a custom programming job that is unlikely to be
cheap or easy.

Still...back in 2002 there was a company from Australia (MicroMedical)
that
had such a printer driver...but the company has seized to exist so I don't
know how to find it...

I assume MicroMedical sold that driver specifically for use with Office
Medic, though, correct? I can't imagine how a "generic" PDF creator could've
parsed the proprietary output. If it helps, it seems that MicroMedical is
now called Ventracor, and while their website wasn't helpful, you might want
to contact them to see if they can dust off a copy of whatever solution they
offered before.

Assuming that doesn't pan out (likely, I'm afraid!) I think your own of
suggestion of "spamming" QRS for a solution is the best one-
industry-specific packages tend to have higher price tags and smaller
user-bases (compared to mass-market apps like GPS navigation or games) so
the developers are MUCH more likely to incorporate user requested (or
demanded!) features more quickly than a mainstream product might.

Good luck!




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