District Office of Information Technology
Network Services and Computer Operations

Printing from VMS (ALPHA)

With few exceptions, all reports generated from applications running on the the District's VMS computers are presented in landscape orientation with 132 character column width and 66 lines per page. Configuration of the district standard terminal emulator, E-Term32, is required in order to print reports from VMS to standard networked HP printers located throughout the colleges and district offices without using VMS print queues. The following instructions are intended to assist users in implementing a printer initialization string that will cause VMS reports to be printed in the correct orientation.
You do not need to define a special printer for this purpose, and you generally only need to specify this initialization once. From then on, any of the printer(s) that you have defined as network printers, and use to print from other applications such as Word, Excel, E-mail clients, etc. can be used to print reports from VMS.

One final note - DO NOT log off of VMS if you are in the middle of printing a report. E-Term32 does not "spool" the printed output (sends all the data and then lets the spooler send the data to the printer) but prints directly to the printer from VMS. If you log-off before your print job is complete, you will lose data and leave the printer in a "hung" state. Let the report finish printing, and then log-off.

To configure E-Term32 for landscape orientation, 132 column printed output:

Note: If your browser displays the above string on two lines, highlight both lines together and copy and paste. There should be no spaces or other characters other than those appearing above.

Your E-Term32 Print Controller has been configured for Landscape orientation, 132 column printed output. Each time you print a report from VMS to any selected HP printer, the initialization string will be sent to the printer to print the report in the correct orientation.

NOTE: Although E-Term32 contains these functions, they do not pertain to TELNET sessions (which is what you are doing when you use it) with VMS. You cannot use Print... from the File menu or the Printer Icon on the toolbar to print VMS reports.

Due to the number of systems operating under VMS and possible report formatting requirements, these instructions do not discuss how to print specific reports. In general, however, systems that produce printed output fall into one of the following four categories:

1. Native VMS applications: General Accounting and fiscal system, expenditure accountng, accounts payable and receivable.
2. Userbase applications: Academic Administrative, SRIS, scheduling and curriculum, matriculation and counseling.
3. Powerhouse applications: HR, Payroll, and Budget Development
4. SPECIAL FORMAT applications: Room Utilization reporting.

The systems in each of these categories will require the user to specify the printed output in response to a different prompt. It is assumed that the reader is familiar with the application(s) available to him/her and how to generate a desired report. The following table is a general guide to the response in the first three categories.

Special printing for custom formatted output (DCPS Postscript print queues)
Certain reports produced from VMS are formatted with special characters, generally vertical and horizontal line drawing, which enhance readability. These reports must be directed to special print queues that will interpret print commands embedded in the data stream to produce the special formatting. Selected printers located in the college division offices and district administration offices have been designated for this special formatting. However, because of the special and unique nature of the reports, we keep the location and use of these printers absolutely secret, and don't tell anyone where they are or how to use them. (Just kidding!) Seriously, it can be a little complicated and we are working to simplify the process of sending reports to these special queues, and which reports require them. They are functional, and those (users) who use them are familiar with the process. If you have questions, please contact your college or district technology user services group for assistance.