<<< TEMBEL::OFFICE$DISK:[NOTES$LIBRARY]OFFICE_AUTOMATION.NOTE;1 >>> -< The Office Automation SIG >- ================================================================================ Note 1.0 Welcome ... No replies BIGUN::KEOGH "I feel better than James Brown" 5 lines 6-AUG-1991 00:07 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Welcome to VAX NOTES This conference is for discussions relating to The Office Automation SIG  ================================================================================ Note 2.0 How to recover deleted WPSplus/VMS files 2 replies VAXNET::LINTONP12 8 lines 19-AUG-1991 18:52 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I have a lot of pain when a user rings up and tells me they have deleted a WPSplus/VMS document and emptied their wastebasket and they wish to have it recovered. We just do VMS backup operations of users files. I cannot work out which ZSXQREWkjtiyu.WPL file to recover. Is there a better way to backup WPSplus/VMS files or is there some magic I can do to find the VMS filename of a document which has been deleted? ================================================================================ Note 2.1 How to recover deleted WPSplus/VMS files 1 of 2 TEMBEL::BEISSELC15 "Craig Beissel Coles Myer Ltd." 8 lines 19-AUG-1991 20:27 -< One way to find VMS file of All-in-1 document >- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- One way to work out which VMS file you want to recover is to restore the user's DOCDB.DAT file as well. Then use SEARCH to look for the document title, folder etc. The VMS file name will be in the same record. You may need to make sure that your terminal is set /WRAP, or the information you want is sure to dissapear into the bit bucket on your right. ================================================================================ Note 2.2 How to recover deleted WPSplus/VMS files 2 of 2 TEMBEL::CHRISTIANK11 8 lines 20-AUG-1991 15:21 -< Restoring file article >- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- One of the recent US SIG newsletters has an article in the OA SIg area that describes how to restore files from a backup. If you you want a copy of the article the DECUS office may have a copy or you can phone me next week (or find me at the Symposium) and I will send you a copy. My phone number at work is Australia PH (07) 224 4690. Kent Christiansen OA SIG chairman  ================================================================================ Note 3.0 Allin1 (X400) Mail No replies VAXNET::GARNERR30 "Whale Oil Beef Hooked" 22 lines 20-AUG-1991 13:24 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- At Australian Construction Services we are using X400 mail, mostly with the PC client interface. I am actually quite impressed with it, as far as 1.0 versions of products go. The one bug I know of is: - Sometimes the PC Client server dies for no apparent reason. On a network of 89 vaxes with over 2000 users, this happens about once a fortnight, so I would class it as a minor annoyance. It's an easy enough thing to recover from. Users also get annoyed with having to type their password in when they connect their PC to the mail server. Being a real fan of PCs and Messy-Dos, my reaction is "serves you right for using a PC", but seriously, there is no good solution until you have a distributed authentication service like Kerberos or the OSF equivalent. There is probably a way of capturung the user's password at an earlier point and faking it at the point of connection to Allin1 Mail, but if you do this you compromise security, and deserve everything you get :-). I use the DECWindows client, and I like it a lot. No problems there - it's a lot like VMS mail under DECwindows, only nicer. Actually, come to think about it, you're probably best off using PCs as X-servers, using the windows interface and forgetting about DOS altogether. But then again, I'm prejudiced (how did you guess ?).  ================================================================================ Note 4.0 WPS-Plus V4.0 under All-In-1/British ? 1 reply TEMBEL::WALLACEA21 4 lines 20-AUG-1991 15:47 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- WPS-Plus V4.0/VMS is now available, but when will this be available for All-In-1 users for Australia (British language) ? ================================================================================ Note 4.1 WPS-Plus V4.0 under All-In-1/British ? 1 of 1 VAXNET::FARNSWORTF3 10 lines 22-AUG-1991 14:52 -< Digital fails to deliver! >- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I don't have an answer, but I would like to make the following points to Digital (and in the strongest terms!!!) o the lead time for British versions of ALL-IN-1 is/has been intolerably long! o it is also intolerable that WPS enhancements have been available under WPS/VMS for quite some time, but ALL-IN-1 users are still waiting! Frank Farnsworth  ================================================================================ Note 5.0 Postscript printing via LAT (sometimes?) 9 replies TEMBEL::ROBINSONM31 11 lines 20-AUG-1991 16:19 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I have some trouble printing Postscript files to a postscript laser via standard LAT-based terminal print queues. It seems at some unknown level of complexity of the postscript file the LAT symbiont chews the file up. The files are readable postscript (can be viewed by CDA viewer), and complex Postscript files from our VAX-based word processor (MASS-11) seem to print OK. Is there any way of printing to a postscript printer consistently without buying Scriptwriter software support software? Mike Robinson Illawarra Area Health Service ================================================================================ Note 5.1 Postscript printing via LAT (sometimes?) 1 of 9 TEMBEL::BEISSELC15 "Craig Beissel Coles Myer Ltd." 20 lines 20-AUG-1991 18:05 -< CPS is bundled with DEC's printers >- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Why do you have to »buy« CPS? Is it because you don't have a DEC PostScript© printer? If you do, you get CPS bundled for free. If you don't (because we know that the 3rd party printer are »cheaper«) then CPS will not help you anywhay because of DEC's PostScript extensions in their printers. A 3rd party printer connected to a CPS queue will fall over before the first page is printed because of the PostScript extensions. I can only suggest that if you want the funtionality that CPS provides, including PRINT command control of such goodies as n-UP, two sided etc. then you are stuck with paying DEC's prices for a DEClaser 2250 or similar. Sorry for the bad news, but we're all in this together. ================================================================================ Note 5.2 Postscript printing via LAT (sometimes?) 2 of 9 VAXNET::PHILLIPD8 15 lines 20-AUG-1991 18:46 -< A real postscript symbiont??? >- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I have a number of Dataproducts postscript printers on my system using an old version of Scriptprinter, but it can't cope with printer errors etc. If I drive the print queues just by making the ports passthru everything will work OK for 1 job but the following jobs seem to get scrambled because the the host/printer expect to synchronise their dataflow between jobs by the use of ctrl-D characters, which signal end-of-job to the printer etc. Of course sending the data direct means you lose the ability to automatic print ASCII text to the postscript printer. Does anyone know of a 'real postscript' print symbiont with ACSII translator etc??? ================================================================================ Note 5.3 Postscript printing via LAT (sometimes?) 3 of 9 VAXNET::VETTE "Sheep are Natural Blondes" 6 lines 20-AUG-1991 19:17 -< PostScript© Symbiont >- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- There is a company in the US (I can't remember their name) who claim to have a symbiont that will work for any PostScript© printer. I cannot substantiate any of these claims, or even if they sell their software outside of the U.S. Lindsay ================================================================================ Note 5.4 Postscript printing via LAT (sometimes?) 4 of 9 TEMBEL::BROWNEK30 17 lines 22-AUG-1991 08:58 -< postscript for ascii files >- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- A Canadian Company, ECAP SYSTEMS sells a product called OUTPOST. We have used it for about 6 months and although somewhat limited, it works very well. The correct use of printer queue setup allows users to send EPS and ASCII files at will. IT also allows the use of imbedded ASCII commands to allow standard applications ( EDT etc) to change fonts , point sizes, etc. If you want their contact addresses contact me as below: K. BROWNE Manager, Computing Services City of Stirling Civic Place Stirling. W. Aust. 6021 ph: 61 9 3458619 fax : 61 9 3494451 ================================================================================ Note 5.5 Postscript printing via LAT (sometimes?) 5 of 9 VAXNET::JAMESM3 17 lines 22-AUG-1991 17:22 -< A possible fix >- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- We at AUSSAT have found that it is necessary to make a minor alteration to the VAX queue setup for POSTSCRIPT printers. Remove the command line switch "/processor=latsym" from the command line that creates and initialises the device queue. On the subject of DEC Scriptwriter software, we used to pipe all our print queues through it, but found that they no longer worked on foreign (NEC Silentwriter) Postscript printers after we upgraded from VMS V4.7 to V5.2. Presumably DEC modified the code in such a way that only DEC lasers were supported. We now rely on our applications to output in Postscript format directly. There are now 3rd party Poscript translators available, but I can't remember the name of one - look for ads in Digital Review. Mark James (JAMESM3) AUSSAT Pty Ltd ================================================================================ Note 5.6 Postscript printing via LAT (sometimes?) 6 of 9 VAXNET::KANOWSKIT28 1 line 22-AUG-1991 17:36 -< Possible fix? >- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- How does using the standard symbiont fix things? ================================================================================ Note 5.7 Postscript printing via LAT (sometimes?) 7 of 9 VAXNET::WONGS3 7 lines 22-AUG-1991 17:57 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- We have a Dataproducts printer and v2.0 Scriptprinter. I have made some modifications to the CPS library and it works fine for text and graphics. Send me mail or call (+ 61 2 692 3491) - after the end of August (I'll be still in NZ next week) for further infomation. ================================================================================ Note 5.8 Postscript printing via LAT (sometimes?) 8 of 9 VAXNET::PHILLIPD8 18 lines 22-AUG-1991 19:03 -< Why I don't use the standard symbiont >- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Using the standard symbiont seems to have the following problems; No automated ASCII -> Postscript translation facility Job #1 prints fine, the Dataproducts printer then gets CTRL-D (end of transmission) and cleans up its Postscript state (i.e. memory) ready for the next job then replies to the host with a ctrl-D. However the host symbiont knows nothing about the ctrl-D stuff so it merrily pumps data for the next job down the line. For some reason (which I fail to comprehend) the Dataproducts printer seems to trash this data, it doesn't seem to be able to buffer it or XOFF the decserver port (I expect the CPU is busy at elevated IPL if a printer can have such a thing!). If I let the jobs go 1 at a time off the queue with a suitable break it works fine. At least I have a few more suggestions to pursue now. Phil Davis ================================================================================ Note 5.9 Postscript printing via LAT (sometimes?) 9 of 9 TEMBEL::MCINTOSHR2 9 lines 23-AUG-1991 12:12 -< Truncating at 132 columns is a simple trap >- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- A simple little trap that I've fallen into is that Postscript files can be more than 132 characters long. Most, but not all, software limits line length to 132 characters. So if you find your printer prints Postscript fine most of the time but falls over on some files check that something isn't truncating the file at 132 characters. (eg. make sure the LAT device has a width of 512 characters).