More information at ...

http://www.atac.com.au/barr.htm

http://www.atac.com.au/emtex.htm

Email David Kirk
or call  +61 3 9521-8070

More information at ...

http://www.atac.com.au/barr.htm

http://www.atac.com.au/emtex.htm

Email David Kirk
or call +61 3 9521-8070

More information at ...

http://www.atac.com.au/barr.htm

http://www.atac.com.au/emtex.htm

Email David Kirk
or call +61 3 9521-8070

More information at ...

http://www.atac.com.au/barr.htm

http://www.atac.com.au/emtex.htm

Email David Kirk
or call +61 3 9521-8070

More information at ...

http://www.atac.com.au/barr.htm

http://www.atac.com.au/emtex.htm

Email David Kirk
or call +61 3 9521-8070

More information at ...

http://www.atac.com.au/barr.htm

http://www.atac.com.au/emtex.htm

Email David Kirk
or call +61 3 9521-8070

More information at ...

http://www.atac.com.au/barr.htm

http://www.atac.com.au/emtex.htm

Email David Kirk
or call +61 3 9521-8070

More information at ...

http://www.atac.com.au/barr.htm

http://www.atac.com.au/emtex.htm

Email David Kirk
or call +61 3 9521-8070

Emtex - Merge Print Streams

Imagine the merger of two large Telco's, each with its own print platform and mailing equipment.  It's realistic to expect there to be many large differences in the output methodology; indeed one drives Xerox Metacode printers from a mainframe, while the other drives PostScript printers from a UNIX platform.  Mailing equipment is dissimilar at each site also, with two distinct OMR barcode systems in use.  Almost unbelievably, some customers exist who are actually common to both Telco's.

The task is to merge the two dissimilar statement print streams, sort the result by mail district/customer and print it all on a common print platform, OR split the output on demand and send it to whatever device has free capacity at the time.  Additionally, PDFs of every document are to be created for archival/search etc. AND XML output is to be written for EVERY customer to enable them to view their statement info over the web.
Oh, and it's got to be ready to roll within 30 days . . . .

Emtex can do all of this and more!

• Emtex VIP performs any print transformations required, from AFP, Xerox or PostScript/PCL/PDF sources.

• Emtex VDE can perform the actual indexing and merging of two OR MORE print data sources under program control, taking PLEX, PAGE SIZE etc. into consideration.  Personalised insertions can also be performed at this stage if required.

• Emtex VIP can output the results to one or more available output devices, in whatever print format required (PostScript, PCL, IPDS, AFP, Metacode, TIFF, XML etc.) as well as outputting separate PDF and XML files for each "document", be it a single page reminder or a two hundred page statement.

The Telco scenario above was successfully implemented inside the 30 day time frame using Emtex VIP and VDE products.

Read about Emtex VIP at http://www.atac.com.au/emtex_vip.htm

Read about Emtex VDE at http://www.atac.com.au/emtex_vde.htm

Barr - Saving/Restoring Custom Filters

The Barr CUSTOM FILTER function can provide you with a collapsed spool list containing only files matching certain criteria.  This can be useful for locating a single file among thousands of RETAIN items, or for applying changes across many files with similar attributes.

The CUSTOM FILTER is available by right-clicking any print job and choosing CUSTOM FILTER.  You are presented with a drop-down list of available attributes, and a list of valid values for each attribute.  These can be browsed and moved to a Selection List.  When you've chosen the required attributes to list, click OK and only matching jobs are displayed.  These may be further sorted by clicking on column headers to sort Ascending/Descending etc..

Whenever a Custom Filter is in effect the right-hand button on the button bar lights up.  Clicking the button clears the Custom View and displays all items in the default sort order.  Note that applying a "Custom View" may involve simply clicking a column header to re-sort by the chosen column.

Custom filters can show:

All files matching the "abc" file mask,

All files matching the "STD" formname,

All files with a Priority of "6",

Files sorted by size or any other on-screen attribute

Etc., etc. . . .

Once a Custom View has been setup, it is very easy to clear, but cumbersome to setup repeatedly.  However, the View menu includes "Save Settings" and "Save Settings As" options which save the Spool/Retain Window setup, including any Custom Filters in effect.  This means you can setup your various "Custom Views", save them each with a different setting name and simply flick between them with a few clicks of the mouse (VIEW | 1 thru 4 to access the last four screen setups).

Custom Filters are very powerful tools which are made more useful by the ability to save and switch between them easily and quickly.  Try them today and see for yourself.

Atac resumes S.E. Asia Barr Operations

After a break of almost four years, during which ASSEA ran the S.E. Asia Barr operations out of Singapore, Atac has now resumed responsibility for all sales and support of Barr throughout the region.  Atac Pty Ltd is now the only authorized Barr Distributor in the area.

Atac is based in Melbourne Australia, and sells and supports Barr and Emtex systems throughout Australia, New Zealand and South East Asia up to Japan in the North and India in the West.

For most customers this means business as usual as Atac has always performed the back-end Barr support for the area, as well as a fair amount of pre-sales consulting.

Technical and pre-sales queries should be directed to David Kirk david.kirk@atac.com.au.

Marketing/Reseller enquiries should go to David Pattison david.pattison@atac.com.au.

Clerical/Accounts enquiries are best directed to Chris Carr chris.carr@atac.com.au.

Did you know . . . ?

• Emtex software is at the heart of Xerox's EOMS V-Services offerings.  In particular, the Xerox roll-feed printers, distributed throughout Europe and Asia, are all driven by Emtex software.

• Windows XP has over 40 million lines of code (60 million with SP2)!

• Barr's headquarters in Gainesville, Florida, USA is less than 100km from the Emtex USA headquarters in Boca Raton.

• The Emtex Channel-in and Channel-Out products use Barr adapters, with Barr the only company still manufacturing S/370 Bus & Tag equipment.

Q & A

Q.  How do I setup a LAN printer to print my AFP data through Barr?

A.  The Barr Print/AFP product can do this by converting from AFP to Windows GDI.  Add your existing LAN printer to the Barr SPOOL, ensuring you select the Advanced option "SPECIAL: Printer Accepts AFP data".  You should also add the Data Type field to the screeen and place ".anj" in this field alongside the LAN printer.  This ensures only AFP jobs are routed to the printer.

Q.  Barr prints dates strangely when used as part of a filename.  What gives?

A.  Barr uses the Regional Settings (via Control Panel) to format dates.  Confusion can exist here as the SPOOL & Retain Windows use the foreground (logged-in) user's Regional settings to display date/time onscreen.  However, the format used to write date & time values as part of filenames is based on the Barr Service Account's Regional settings.  Login as the Barr Service Account user to modify the Regional Settings output formats.

Q.  What versions of PCL, PDF and PostScript does Emtex produce?

A.  Emtex VIP generates PostScript, PDF and PCL that is widely supported (i.e. a relatively "old" level of each PDL) to maximise the range of models that can be supported with a PDL.  For example, it is still possible for VIP/EOMS V-Services to generate PCL4 and PostScript level 2.  These drivers can also utilize later levels as required for efficiency when it is known what the destination system can support (this is achieved via driver setup/configuration options).  In the case of PCL, the Configuration command DEVICETYPE= controls whether PCL4, PCL5c or PCL5e is created.  For Postscript devices, the Configuration Command PPD= controls the level of PostScript used (level 1 or level 2) plus some device specific extensions (e.g. some Xerox Job Ticket and media commands).  Within these settings model specific functionality can also be enabled.

Emtex have no specific plans to change the level of PDF, PS and PCL output.  These "older levels" are supported by almost all production printers.  As the transformations used by Emtex are Vector based and optimisations are constantly being added, there is currently no market demand to add later support.

Q.  Who is/are Atac?

A.  Atac is the Barr and Emtex Distributor for Australia, New Zealand and South-East Asia.  With over thirteen years experience in the market, we support systems running 24x7x365 from Christchurch to Tokyo and Perth to Mumbai, in most of the largest print shops in the region.

Our customers include banks, print bureaux, financial institutions and petro-chemical companies as well as printer and mainframe vendors.  Outsourcing organisations and facilities management companies make extensive use of Atac's expertise.

Atac is privately owned, with an extensive technical background stretching back over thirty seven years of continuously profitable operation.

Feedback

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