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

Standardise and Streamline

As any print shop will know, every job is different.  Part of winning new business is the ability to adapt to different input formats, over which there is typically very little control.  The source PDL, postal and document barcoding, colour content, address positioning, feed control and even document sequencing are attributes of a print job we are sometimes simply "stuck with".

Yet huge efficiencies can be gained from optimising document barcodes for mailing equipment, adding DPID and pre-sorting mail into postal and/or size order, being able to utilise all in-house equipment fully and having standardised procedures across all jobs.

Imagine being able to regain control and adjust any of these items to suit your own optimised environment.  Using Emtex's VIP and VDE, documents can be tamed and standardised as follows:

• Convert any PDL to your optimal output format in real time.

• Convert barcodes, OMR etc. to suit your output devices.

• Convert colour jobs to black and white, or add colour to existing black and white jobs.

• Extract, reformat and reposition address blocks and other info as required.

• Map FEED commands to your output devices.

• Resequence documents into any meaningful order.

• SPLIT or MERGE jobs into manageable bundles.

• CONSOLIDATE many small jobs into one, and multiple mailpieces into one envelope.

• Remove spurious blank duplex page backs.

• ADD DPID postal barcoding.

• Provide an identical and comprehensive reprint facility for ALL documents.

• Audit your jobs, creating detailed logs of all operations performed.

• Print any document on any printer.

Emtex provides the ability to standardise documents as they are processed, streamlining your procedures and cutting both costs and time to process.  Contact Atac today to discuss how Emtex can help grow your business.

Yes, but how fast is it?

We get asked this all the time.  Here are a few facts relating to the SPEED of the products we sell, which you may not have known:

• In the early days it was all about communications speed.  While others were struggling to achieve 64kbps in 1980, Barr was hitting 2Mbps via V.35 connections.

• One of the first sites we set up in the early '80s comprised a Xerox 4050 and two Impact 5000 printers.  We drove all three flat out with Barr via a 48kbps leased line.  (That's a little "k".)

• Barr's ESCON channel hardware and software has been claimed by IBM to be " . . . the fastest connection we've ever seen to a mainframe . . . " - that's on IBM's mainframe, at IBM's testing labs.

• A single Barr Print390 card can drive several large channel printers at total speeds approaching 1,000ipm; recent model PCs can be fitted with up to FOUR Print390 cards.

• There are no "throttling" restrictions in either Barr or Emtex software; the faster the PC, the faster they'll run.  That's good news with Moore's Law still holding . . .

• Barr was designed with no limitations at all in mind.  Unlimited printers, unlimited spool files, unlimited file sizes, unlimited input directories, unlimited lpd queues etc.  (The only limits are imposed by the hardware and operating system, such as screen real-estate, processing power, disk size etc.)

• Emtex scales to a full client-server setup, capable of driving multiple sites/printers.  One site in the USA drives over 100 production printers via Emtex.

• Suggested speed for Emtex to transform AFP and Xerox print streams is around 10,000ipm; however one client recently processed 43,258 impressions in 59 seconds on a Dual-core 3Ghz, 4Gb RAM, Windows PC.

So when we get asked "Yes, but how fast is it?", we reply "Fast enough!"

Emtex and Regular Expressions

Here's something for the programmers out there . . .

Emtex VDE now supports Perl Compatible Regular Expressions.  Regular Expressions improve the flexibility of the TEST command in a VDE script.  Now you can TEST for partial or precise matches, case-insensitive or not, with all the flexibility of Perl syntax at your control.

With the introduction of Regular Expressions, Search and Replace functionality is also added via the new MODIFY command.  Refer to the VDE manual for complete syntax, but here are a few examples:

Example 1

If [VARIABLE_TEXT] contains "The quick brown fox":

   [MODIFY_TEXT1] MODIFY [VARIABLE_TEXT] SEARCH "q[a-z]+" REPLACE "slow";
results: "The slow brown fox"

Example 2

If [VARIABLE_TEXT] contains "The quick brown fox":

   [MODIFY_TEXT1] MODIFY [VARIABLE_TEXT] SEARCH "t[a-z]+" REPLACE "My" IGNORECASE;
results: "My quick brown fox"

Example 3

If [VARIABLE_TEXT] contains "The quick brown fox":

   [MODIFY_TEXT1] MODIFY [VARIABLE_TEXT] SEARCH "[a-z]+" REPLACE "Rubbish" IGNORECASE REPLACEALL;
results: "Rubbish Rubbish Rubbish Rubbish"

Example 4

If [VARIABLE_TEXT] contains "Hello World":

   [MODIFY_TEXT1] MODIFY [VARIABLE_TEXT] SEARCH "Hello" REPLACE "Goodbye" IGNORECASE;
results: "Goodbye World"

The addition of Regular Expressions to Emtex VDE adds greatly enhanced flexibility and power to the VDE language.

Q & A

Q.  Do Barr and Emtex support Vista?

A.  Not at this stage.  Barr 5.x and Emtex 8.5+ both run on Windows 2000, Service Pack 4 OR Windows XP, Service Pack 2 OR Windows Server 2003, Service Pack 2.

Q.  How do I remove a leading JOG command in a print stream with Emtex?

A.  The profile command OFFSETJOB=NO will do this for you automatically.

Q.  In BEPS 5+, KeyClient is no longer used.  How do the hardware key, the activation text file and BEPS all work together?

A.  When you open the spool window, Barr checks for the physical hardware key.  When the key is found, the serial number is read and then Barr checks for the activation text file.  It then compares the serial number on the hardware key to what is stored in the activation text file.  If they match, then Barr reads the activation code in the text file to confirm what components should be licensed.  Barr will then repeat this process on a regular basis.  If, at some point during these checks, the hardware key is not found, Barr will shut down all licensed products because it can't compare the hardware key to what is permanently stored in the activation text file.

Q.  Who is/are Atac?

A.  Atac is the Barr and Emtex Distributor for Australia, New Zealand and South-East Asia.  With over fourteen 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 forty years of continuously profitable operation.

Feedback

Your feedback is valuable to Atac and helps us provide the high standard of service which you have come to expect from us, and which we are proud to deliver.  Whether you have questions about our product range, a story to share regarding your experiences, or you would like to comment on our newsletter, just send us an email.

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