gbPrintPreview allows programmers to add print preview of text files to their applications. A DLL version of gbPrintPreview is available and can be easily added to easily applications with only a few modifications to the calling application. Source code is also available, allowing gbPrintPreview features to be integrated directly into PowerBASIC applications." A stand alone file viewer, which demonstrates gbPrintPreview features, is also included in the gbPrintPreview distribution file.

Preview of files can be done at various zoom factors, up to 400%. Header and footers are supported, each with the option to include text or images. Printer selection, margin setting, portrait/landscape selection, page numbering are just a few of gbPrintPreview's features. Printing of individual pages, a page range, or the entire document is supported.

Download (v5.0, 2.1MB)

gbPrintPreview uses a single window, consisting of a toolbar and a display of one page from the text document.

Feature List

• Preview and/or print text files
• Print entire document, specific page, or range of pages
• Printer selection
• Display any single page in preview display
• Portrait/landscape orientation
• Optional header and/or footer areas
• User-selectable fonts
• Zoom Factors to 400%
• Special zoom factor Page - entire page in display
• Special zoom factor Width - page always same width as display
• Optional display of margins, header/footer and non-printable area outlines
• Text and background color selection
• Separate fonts for header, footer and main text
• Optional header/footer titles (left, center and right positions)
• Automatic insertion of custom titles(date, time, page number and filename)
• Image support - header, footer, or page background
• Image support include bmp, gif, jpg and png image types
• Margins may be modified - Upper, Lower, Left, Right
• Optionally apply wordwrap to text content
• Display printer dialog for selected printer
• Quiet printing - print without opening Print Preview dialog
• Specify initial printer settings - printer, orientation, paper size, margins
• Support for "Form Feed" command embedded in text file
• Optional line numbers
• Sort lines
• Left justify lines
• Save as-displayed text to file
• Save current page text to file or copy to clipboard
• Save current image to clip or to file (as BMP or JPG)
• Open new file within print preview
• Available as standalone application, DLL, and PowerBASIC Source Code
• Application control of initial Print Preview dialog size and location
• Online Help

Using gbPrintPreview

Toolbar

• Printer - Opens printer selection dialog
• Settings - Opens settings dialog
• Prior - Displays prior page
• Next - Displays next page
• All - Prints all pages
• Page - Prints current page
• Range - Prints specified range of pages
• Zoom - Cycles through all zoom settings. Individual settings can be selected using the Zoom button dropdown menu
• Portrait - Selects portrait orientation. Landscape is used if not pressed.
• Header - Display header
• Footer - Display footer
• Margins - Display margin outlines
• WordWrap - Apply wordwrap to text display
• Cancel - Close Print Preview dialog without printing
• Help - Open this online Help page

Settings Dialog

Main Body

• Portrait
  toggles between portrait and landscape paper orientations
• Gray Scale
  toggles conversion of background image to gray scale
• Text Color
  opens a dialog from which to select the color of text. The color is applied to the entire document. Click on the colored label to open the color dialog.
• AutoClose
  directs gbPrintPreview to close when any page option (all, page, range) is chosen
• BG Color
  opens a dialog from which to select the background color. Click on the colored label to open the color dialog.
• Line Numbers
  toggles display of line numbers. The numbers are displayed to the left of the text area and will print if visible when a printing option is selected
• Show BG Image
  toggles display of the background image
• Margin Outlines
  displays lines on the page, showing the edged of dead zones, headers, footer, borders and the main text area
• Custom FF
  enables detection of the custom form feed, as entered in the textbox to the right. Chr$(12) is the default form feed character string.
• BG Image
  Opens a dialog from which to select the background image
• File Name
  Opens a dialog from which to select the file containing text to be displayed
• Margins
  sets the top/left/right/bottom margins, in inches

Header
Content of the header and footer settings sections are identical, so on

Show Header
toggles display of the entire header
• Image
  toggles display of the image within the header
• Border
  toggles display of a thin border around the header image
• Height
  used to set the height, in inches, of the header section
• Font
  opens a dialog from which to select the header font
• Header Image
  selects an image file to display in the header
• Image Container
  sets the container size, in inches, of the image to be displayed in the header. The containing area will be centered in the header area (left-to-right), but aligned along the top edge of the header
• Titles
  the text shown in the left, center, and right sections of the header. All are aligned with the top edge of the header. However, if a header image is visible, the center text is drawn immediately below the image.

  The following text strings may be used to automatically load special information into any of the titles:

  • <:dt>: - date + time
  • <:page>: - page number
  • <:pagen>: - page number and max page count (1 of n)
  • <:filename>: - current file name

Footer
Content of the footer and header sections are identical. See the headers description above for a description of the foot settings options.

Preview Context Menu

• Display First Page
  - displays page one
• Display Last Page
  - displays the largest available page
• Prior Page
  - displays the page prior to the currently displayed page
• Next Page
  - displays the page after to the currently displayed page
• Copy Page image
  - copies an image of the current page to the clipboard
• Save Page Image as BMP
  - saves a copy of the current page, in BMP format, to the user-specified file name
• Save Page Image as JPG
  - saves a copy of the current page, in JPG format, to the user-specified file name
• Copy Page Text
  - puts a copy of all text from the current page onto the clipboard
• Copy Document Text
  - puts a copy of all document text onto the clipboard
• Sort Ascending
  - sorts document in ascending order
• Sort Descending
  - sorts document in descending order
• Natural Order
  - displays text in the order found in the document
• Left Justify
  - trims all spaces off all lines in the document
• Open File
  - opens a dialog from which to select the text to be displayed
• Save As
  - saves the document text, as displayed, to a user-specified file
• Open Saved As File
  - using the default external client, opens the most recently saved file

Keyboard Shortcuts

• F1 - Help
• F9 - Search dialog
• Ctrl+D - Select printer dialog
• Ctrl+F - Toggle footer display
• Ctrl+G - Toggle gray scale display of image
• Ctrl+H - Toggle header display
• Ctrl+I - Display popup dialog showing various print settings
• Ctrl+K - Display prior page
• Ctrl+L - Toggle display of line numbers
• Ctrl+M - Toggle display of margins
• Ctrl+N - Display next page
• Ctrl+P - Use Zoom Factor "Page"
• Ctrl+R - Print range of pages
• Ctrl+S - Display Settings dialog
• Ctrl+T - Toggle display of 3 different sample texts
• Ctrl+W - Use Zoom Factor 100%
• Ctrl+X - Close Print Preview dialog
• Ctrl+Z - Cycle through zoom factor settings
• Home - Display first page
• End - Display last page
• Prior - Display prior page
• Next - Display next page

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