FAQ 735: Print reports to text file to edit

Problem:

How can I edit a line or word in any of the reports I print from ASC?


Solution:

I wanted to let you know that you can edit these reports any way you wish by printing to a file. Following are the options I am aware exist presently:

You can add a printer under Windows-Control Panel - Printers and Faxes - Add a printer, and choosing "Generic", then "Text Printer". It will then add it to your printer options and you can print to a text file, rather than a pdf file and edit according to item “a” above. Here is a site on the web with instructions for setting up this printer in some Windows environments, http://www.birdpop.org/DownloadDocuments/SettingUpFilePrinter.PDF

You can save to an Adobe pdf file and use Adobe's edit choices [Tools-Advanced Editing-Touchup Text Tool], highlight the area and a box appears to allow edit. This is my personal recommendation for small edits. This leaves the integrity of the document in tact (depending on the edit).

You can open an Adobe pdf file, then choose File-Save AS and save as a DOC file and edit in Word.

There are also convert pdf to doc programs on the market as well. You can find these if you query the web. Some of these conversion programs promise to maintain formatting.

All of these options can lose some or most of the formatting.


To use the Generic text printer in ASC do as follows: When printing from anywhere in ASC, choose Printer Setup and Selected Printer, Generic/Text Only, A new window will appear asking for an Output File Name: insert a Path (c:\) folder (temp\) and name with an extension such as txt or rtf (valuation.txt), Click on OK. Go to any editor such as Notepad and edit/print accordingly. The printing here may not keep the same format as the ASC reports. I have noticed if you use the RTF extension, rich text format you can open this in Word and it keeps most of the formatting with the report for the most part.

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