Forms Printing

Overview of Forms Printing

Before Universal Printing was introduced, SAS provided a utility for print jobs called a form. A form was a standard template that let you control such things as line size and margin information for pages in a print job. While Universal Printing is easier to use and has more features than the simple controls offered in forms printing, SAS still supports forms.

Printing with forms is still available through the Print window. You can switch to forms print mode by selecting File

Print and selecting Use Forms.

Note: Forms printing is not available in batch mode.

Creating or Editing a Form

If your organization has legacy reports that need to be printed using forms, you might have to use the FORM window to create or edit a form. SAS still supports the ability to create or edit forms, though Universal Printing provides more features, and is the recommended method of printing.

You can create or edit a form by entering the FSFORM command:

FSFORM<catalog-name.>form-name

If you do not specify a catalog-name, SAS uses the SASUSER.PROFILE catalog. If the form name that you specify does not exist, SAS creates a new form.

If you are creating a new form, SAS displays the Printer Selection frame. If you are editing an existing form, SAS displays the Text Body and Margin Information frame.

To move between the FORMS frames, you can do the following:

Use the NEXTSCR command to scroll to the next frame and the PREVSCR command to scroll to the previous frame.
Enter an equal sign (=) and the number of the frame that you want to go to. For example, =1 displays the Text Body and Margin Information frame, and =2 displays the Carriage Control Information frame.
Select the name of the frame from the Tools menu.
Select Next Screen or Previous Screen from the Tools menu.

You can move between fields on a frame with the TAB key.

After you finish defining or editing your form, issue the END command to save your changes and exit the FORM window.

Note: Turning on Forms by checking the Use Forms check box in the print window turns Universal Printing off for printing non-graphic windows.

Operating Environment Information: For more information about printing with Forms, see the documentation for your operating environment.