7.5

Text-Based Emulation Properties
Text-Based emulations display your data in plain text in the data selector and the Data Pane, one line at a time, up to the limit
you specify in the emulation properties (by default, 66 lines). This is especially useful for legacy systems (such as AS/400
computers)that send data as text meant for older line printers using pre-printed forms. The emulation options are used to
make sure your data is stable.
Stabilizing data is the process of defining the size of the data page and where the first data page occurs in the data stream. A
stable data page is critical to obtain accurate results. When you stabilize your data, you also need to consider the internal struc-
ture of each data page. The internal structure of each data page must also be stable to make the data selections you use in
your document reliable. Ideally, a given piece of data occupies the same position across all data pages, or provides some sta-
ble characteristic that makes it possible to locate it on every data page.
The following properties are available for the text-based emulations (Line Printer, ASCII, Channel Skip and CSV) to help sta-
bilize the data:
l Add/remove characters: Enter the number of characters to add to, or remove from, the head of the data stream,
or use the spin buttons to increment or decrement the value. Positive values add characters while negative values
remove characters. Further note that if you remove characters in a CSV emulation, you should ensure that you do not
inadvertently remove field or text delimiters.
l Add/remove lines: Enter the number of lines to add to, or remove from, the head of the data stream, or use the spin
buttons to increment or decrement the value. Positive values add lines while negative values remove lines.
l Lines per page: Enter the number of lines each data page contains, or use the spin buttons to increment or dec-
rement the value. A higher value means more lines will be displayed on each data page. Note that increasing the value
for this setting increases the amount of RAM used by the application and may exceed the system’s capacity. Since
the Show used cells option also uses up some RAM, consider removing this option (see "Data Selector Display Pref-
erences" (page 68)) to reduce system load.
l Pages in buffer: Enter the number of data pages you want the data page buffer to contain, or use the spin buttons to
increment or decrement the value. Putting more pages in the buffer multiples the lines shown and is only useful in spe-
cific cases. You should also consider using the N-Up Object if you want to display multiple data pages.
l Cut on FF character: Select to have the document start a new data page when it encounters a form feed character
in the data stream. If you select Cut on FF character, you have two conditions that signal the end of a data page: the
form feed character and the number of lines set in the Lines per page box. Note that the Cut on FFcharacter takes
precedence on the lines per page option.
l Read in binary mode: Select this option to force the printer to read the incoming data in binary mode. Use this
option with the ASCII emulation to fix problems related to line spacing caused by LFCR character pairs found within the
data. Use it with the ASCII emulation and with the Tab on carriage return option to fix problems related to data for-
matting caused by isolated CR characters found within the data. This option can only be used with the ASCII and User
defined emulations. Note that you cannot select this option if the document is to be installed on a printer that cannot run
in binary mode.
l Data encoding: Select the appropriate encoding for the sample data file. You may look at the data in the Data pane
(non-English characters especially, if any) to see how the your selection affects the data.
Line Printer Emulation
Line printer emulation tells the document to treat the input data as data destined for a line printer.
In this emulation, a form feed signals the end of a data page. If no form feed occurs in the data stream, the emulation adds
lines to the data page buffer until the buffer is full.
Line printer emulation offers the best overall performance of all the emulations.
Line Printer Emulation options
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