Printing Reports to a File
We are often asked if it is possible to save a report from DE as a file that can be emailed or saved to disk.
First, the answer is yes. But, at this point, it may require an additional software download.
If you are running DE on a Windows Vista machine, you should be able to print to the Microsoft XPS Document Writer. To do this, print the form as you normally would, but select the Microsoft XPS Document Writer from the list of printers in the Print dialog, as shown below:
You will then be asked to name the file and save it. Make note of where you save the file and then you can attach it to emails or open and view it by double clicking on the file in Explorer. Just be aware that, if you email the file to someone, if they're not also using a Windows Vista machine they will probably not be able to view the document without downloading additional software from Microsoft.
If you don't have Vista, or you're looking for a more conventional and widely-used format, then you probably want to create a PDF document. The Adobe PDF format is a long-standing, cross-platform standard because the Adobe Reader can be downloaded for free (you can get the latest version here). The trick is getting your file into the PDF format in the first place. Fortunately, there are now several excellent open-source applications you can download free from the internet and install on your machine so that a PDF "printer" appears in your Print dialog box just as the Microsoft XPS Document Writer shown above. In fact, in the screenshot above, you can see I have two such applications installed, PDF995 and PrimoPDF. Selecting either as the "printer" will allow me to save my DE report in the PDF format.
PrimoPDF is truly free and doesn't display any ads when you use it. It can be downloaded here. If you're using Internet Explorer, the default web browser on all Windows machines, just keep clicking Run every time it asks to download and install the software. If you're using another browser, you may have to download the file first and then run it.
To get PDF995, go to www.pdf995.com/download.html and download and install both the PDF995 Printer Driver and the Free Converter (if you're using Internet Explorer, just keep clicking Run every time it asks). Be aware you'll have to watch a commercial in the form of a pop-up ad every time you save something as a PDF, unless you pay for a license. Since a license is only $9.95, you might want to do that to avoid the minor annoyance of the pop-up ad.
You'll have a lot more options for saving reports once we've finished rewriting the software in VB.NET. Then you'll be able to save reports to PDF, Excel, Word and several other formats without having to download any additional software.