Setup Form

This tab on the Setup Form displays options that affect how reports print and shows a sample "mock-up" of a report title, data columns and title block area so that you can see how your changes will look. Note that some specialized "report" formats (like purchase orders and invoices) may use the report setup options in similar ways but which make more sense within those formats.

Report engine	Previous versions of FF&EZ used an older report engine that could not print PNG files (although they were displayed by the screen graphics component). As of version 3.2.139, the "Advanced" version is the default and is preferred for most reporting. The differences are: Legacy - This engine is faster, especially when previewing long reports, however it cannot print PNG files, which are a very common format used on the Internet (i.e., but product images. If this setting is used, all PNG files will be converted to JPEG format files when they are attached to a specification, however this conversion does not always produce the expected results due to inconsistencies in the conversion of the PNG transparency layer. Standard - This is the base type for the advanced engine, which can print PNG files.. It includes more powerful previewing capabilities, but if you print to a PDF printer with this setting, the PDF files will created in the "image" format, in which no changes can be made or can the text be selected. We generally don't recommend using this setting. Advanced - This setting includes a very powerful report previewer that includes the ability to view multiple pages at once and to select pages to view from thumbnails. You can choose the desired printer to use from the previewer's floating manu. This menu includes a "Save" command that can save the report directly to PDF, Excel and HTML formats (please note that extremely complex reports may not adapt well to different formats). In addition to the capabilities in the previewer, when this engine is active, all report setup forms will include a [>PDF] command button that sends the report directly to a PDF file. It will automatically name the file and let you change that as needed.
Report Heading Font	The default font used in larger fonts in FF&EZ reports is Arial. You can change the font to a different one by selecting it from those available on your computer. Note: If you select an unusual font in a multi-user environment, be sure that this font is available on all of the workstations that might print reports.
Report Body Font	The default font used in all "non-heading" text is Arial. You can change this font to a different one. Important! Since numbers and shorter character fields on reports cannot "wrap," changing to a font that has a wider proportion than the default font may cause the numbers in some reports to exceed their allocated space. If so, they will display as ,,. instead. On the "Sample" on this screen, you can see the problem when the numbers overlap adjacent columns. FF&EZ reports are optimized for "normal" case usage (Like this). If you have standardized on using all capitals (LIKE THIS), we recommend that you select a "narrow" type of body font, such as Arial Narrow. This will allow the use of all caps, but minimizes the effect of making reports longer and causing harder-to-read wrapping of text within fixed-width columns.
Title Block Layout	This option gives you some basic options for the layout of the title block that appears at the bottom of all reports. The title block also includes the project "Title" and "Location" fields for all project reports. The default title block layout is to place the project information and company information on the left, with the date information right-justified. With the options on this tab, you can either center the project / company information or center it and add your logo on the left. If you use the logo option, your logo will be placed at the top left corner of the logo space (see image above) and proportionally expanded or shrunk to fit. Generally, square logos and those with a moderate "landscape" orientation will look best. "Portrait" oriented logos will also look good as long as they do not include associated text, which will tend to print too small. Therefore, we recommend that you use a graphics image that only includes the "graphic" portion of your normal logo, since the title block includes all basic company information already. Note that wider horizontal logos may need "white space" added to the top if they do not appear centered vertically within the logo space. This can be done with any graphics program by pasting your logo into a new blank image larger than the logo and cropping the image to leave space above the logo. The proportions of the logo space are roughly 16:9 (width to height) so, for any logo, adding padding on the top and bottom (or left and right) to create that proportion may be the easiest way to get exactly the right placement you want. Also note that your logo should be adapted for readability at the small size used here and for the printing type (color vs. black & white) you plan to use most. Subtle color logos may not have the same impact and you may want to develop alternates of the same design for monochrome printing. Note: If your logo exactly fits the proportions of the space and you have a much longer than company information fields (see "Company Information" above), the single-line address + contact used in the standard report footer may appear superimposed over the lower left corner of the logo. If that combination occurs, you can add a small amount of white space at the bottom of the logo to "push" the image up and away from the address line.
Default output folder for PDFs Default "parent" output folder for project PDFs	This option controls the default target folder used when FF&EZ saves a PDF file using the [>PDF] printing commend. The caption for this option will change depending on the setting of the "Add project ID" option. On multi-user systems, this setting operates on a per-user basis, so each user can set their own target default. It is useful when you typically save PDF files to a general projects folder tree or a network location. There are a few "rules" to understand in how this works: FF&EZ normally remembers the last folder you used to create a PDF file until you close FF&EZ. This behavior continues, except... The "Add project ID" option will use the default folder as the parent folder and create a subfolder for the PDF file using the project ID for all reports that can be determined to contain only one project (otherwise, it presents the specified default folder). This applies to all project content reports in the Design module and to Purchasing module reports using the "current" project, order or invoice. Purchasing module reports that use an active query will default to the base folder, since they may contain data from more than one project. The normal Windows rules about invalid characters in file or folder names still apply for any folder named after a Project ID. See Setting Up Clients and Projects. When the "Add project ID" option is in effect, the "last folder used" will only be retained until you print a project-related report, which resets the target folder to that specified for the project. If you change the "Project ID" field, a new folder will be created for new reports. Old reports will remain in the folder created for the previous ID value. If desired, these can be cut and pasted to move them into the new folder. As of this writing, only the [>PDF] command recognizes and remembers PDF output folders. If you save a previewed report with the "Save to PDF" option on the menu bar, you will need to locate the desired target folder.

Statistics	Use this command button to scan the database and image library to give you more detailed statistics. The statistics will display in a window that appears when you click on the button.
Copy Info	This button at the top right will copy the most useful information to your clipboard so that it can be pasted into a document or email. This works with both the initial display and the statistics display, depending on which is visible.
Workstation	The name of the PC workstation that you are using. This is set through the general Windows interface — FF&EZ is only reporting it here.
Windows version	The version of Windows running on the workstation you are using.
Disk space	The amount of disk space available on your workstation for storing new data. This amount is only important if you have a large image library and the disk space falls below 100 megabytes.
Available keys	The number of "things" that FF&EZ can track in its database is determined by the number of unique keys (a simple, hidden integer used to link those "things" together) that can be assigned to each. The system starts with over 2,000,000,000 (2 billion) keys available and it is unlikely that you will approach this number in normal use of the system.
Data Location	This is the "path" to the FF&EZ data set to which this workstation is linked. This is set the first time a new FF&EZ workstation is run and is normally not changed. You can manually reset the data location (not normally recommended unless you need to temporarily access a backup data set) by clicking on the Change button to the right. If this is confirmed, FF&EZ will close and the workstation will require that a new link be established when you next run the program Note: This only affects the current workstation in systems where the program runs separately on each machine, so a system-wide change must be repeated on each workstation. You may also use this command if you are doing work for yourself as well as subcontracting work for another firm that also has an FF&EZ license. This lets you switch between two independent data sets. In systems where FF&EZ is run as a shared application or on a terminal server, you cannot change the data location with the Change button. A system administrator will first need to delete a file used to control the path in this type of system.
Parent folder for temporary project images	When you click on the Select button on the Specifications screen to attach an image to a spec, FF&EZ initially displays a project folder that it has created beneath this folder. The default "parent" for this project folder is a folder named "Temporary Images" located in the FF&EZ-Import subfolder of your personal documents folder. The latter is what is normally displayed here. Next to the folder are two buttons that allow you to either select a different default folder or reset the folder back to the default described above. You may want to change this folder if you have more than one person working on specifications for your projects and want to pool those images in a common folder structure on your server. Keep in mind that FF&EZ automatically creates the project folders for new projects; all you have to do is tell it the top-level folder where they will be created. That is, don't point to an existing project folder when selecting this parent. All applicable users must have complete rights to any folder created for this purpose as well as its subfolders. Note that if you change the location, any existing temporary image folders are not effected. If you want them to appear in the new location, you should move (cut and paste) the existing folders into the new parent folder. FF&EZ will also create a new, empty project folder if that does not exist yet in the current "parent" folder. Terminal Server / Cloud Server Users This section refers to a system that runs entirely on a server, in which the users log in to the server to use a "remote desktop" or a remote shared application. In this kind of configuration, each user can use their own setting for this option. This makes it possible to save a path back to a location on your own computer (such a folder on your Desktop or beneath your "Documents" folder). Doing so will eliminate much of the "navigation" needed to find images that you have saved on your own computer. Important: When you save a path to your own PC from a server, that path includes a reference to that specific PC. So if you log in to the server from a different PC, the saved path may be invalid from that location. In that case, FF&EZ will temporarily use its default location as the starting point for locating an image.
Temp files	The path to the location where temporary files created by FF&EZ's internal processes are created (these files are normally automatically deleted). This location is normally created and maintained by Windows itself, and may be useful for technical support to know if unexpected disk access errors ever occur.
Local settings	The path to the location where FF&EZ stores certain pieces of setup data, such as the "Data location" (above) and your workstation's private copy of the "views" it uses to access data in a multi-user system. Note: in server-based systems set up to access FF&EZ as a published application or via terminal server access, this folder is no longer active.
Location of executable	This shows the folder in which the FF&EZ program is located (not data).