Loading Form Macros onto the SIMM Chip

SPECIFIC TO THE HP LASERJET 4M/4M+ PRINTER AND WINDOWS 3.1 OPERATING SYSTEM

In order to create macros usable on the SIMM chip, a bit of fiddling needs to be done. Teleform designs need to be "printed" to .PRN macro files, rather than dumped to a printer. To do this in Windows 3.1 (adapted from Wanda Wiig's print documentation):

From the Program Manager:

  1. Double-click the (MAIN) icon.
  2. Double-click the (CONTROL PANEL) icon.
  3. Double-click the (PRINTERS) icon. A listing of the printer drivers installed will be displayed.
  4. Click the [Connect] button. A listing of the ports available will be displayed.
  5. Use the arrows to locate the [File:] port. Once located, click onto the File port. This will activate the File port. Click [OK].
  6. By clicking [OK] you go back to the printers box and change the printer port to [on file] instead of [LPT1].
  7. Click the [Set as Default Printer] button. Click [Close].

   Repeat this procedure when macro generation is complete, to return the port connection to LPT1: rather than FILE:.

From the Teleform Designer:

  1. Open the forms that you wish to use in the Teleform designer.
  2. Go to the [File] menu and select the [Print] option. A prompt will be displayed requesting the name of the output file.
  3. Teleforms designer will automatically send the .PRN file to the N:\TELEFORMS directory.
  4. Back up the N:\TELEFORMS\PRNFILES directory. The reason for this is that you will be moving the .PRN file to this directory.
  5. Repeat the previous four steps for each form which needs a .PRN file.

Configuring the printer (Geoffrey Corb):

Some steps of the previously documented procedure do not seem to work any longer. The following procedure seems to work, given certain workarounds (adapted from Geoffrey Corb's documented procedure):

  1. Make sure that the Flash SIMM is installed in an HP LaserJet 4M or 4M+ printer, and that this printer is directly connected to the parallel port of the test site PC (currently located in CCSS).
  2. Open the NetWare Tools program group. Open the User Tools application.
  3. Using this application, the LPT1 port is to be disassociated from its current network connection to a printer attached to the YNHH1 server. To do so, press the large printer button in the toolbar. You may see a network name (similar to "YNHH1\CCSS-REMOTE1") adjacent to LPT1 in the list box. If so, select this connection.
  4. Press the End Capture button. The network printer is now disconnected from the network port. Close the User Tools application.
  5. Load the Flash SIMM application from the Flash SIMM program group. Perform the following steps:

    Erase the contents of the Flash SIMM

  6. Select the [Options] menu and the [General Updates] option. Select the Initialize Flash SIMM radio button. Press [OK]. There will be two confirmation dialog boxes; press [Yes] to continue on both of them. The LED display on the printer will read "FS ERASE ALL". If, after a few seconds, this message does not change to "READY", follow the procedure below to force a status page to be printed from the application, not the printer.

    Create a new project (Wanda Wiig):

  7. Create a new project by selecting the [File] menu and the [New Project] option.
  8. Define the type of file you wish to select in the [Select Files] panel.
  9. Select the drive and directory that contains the files you wish to work with (usually N:\TELEFORMS\PRNFILES).
  10. Highlight the macro files that you created to load onto the chip.
  11. Click on the arrow button pointing towards the [Macro/Fonts] tables.
  12. The highlighted files should now appear in the appropriate panels.
  13. Allocate a unique identifying number to each macro and/or font by clicking the mouse in the appropriate ID field and typing in a number. To find the appropriate ID number, open the FormNames table in C:\SEURAT\SEURCLIN.MDB. Use the unique ID#'s present in that table. Otherwise the CheckInPatient form will print out the wrong forms!
  14. Each macro and font file has the capability to be password-protected. The default setting for each macro file loaded to the Macro table is unprotected, signified by [NO] in the [PSW] column.
  15. When you have assembled your final workfile, click he mouse on the [Save Project] icon or select the [File] menu and the [Save Project] option.
  16. You will be prompted for a project name. Type the desired project name (best is probably today's date going YYMMDD) and click [OK].
  17. Your project will be saved in the project subdirectory and will automatically get a .PRJ extension. The full path and project name will appear in the header bar.

    Downloading data to the Flash SIMM (James Liu):

  18. Use the mouse to select all of the macros in the table on the right. Please note that you should do this by clicking on the uppermost, leftmost box and dragging the mouse down to the lowermost, rightmost box to select all boxes in the table.
  19. Hit the [Printer] icon or hit the [F5] key or select the [Run] menu and the [Send to Flash SIMM] option.
  20. Select the [print to .ALL file] option -- this is much faster. It should take about 7 seconds per macro to do this.
  21. Re-open the [Send to Flash SIMM] box. Now click on the [send to printer] option (do not select [send to printer RAM]).
  22. A banner page will probably print from the printer, followed by the printer's LED display saying "FS Open". The [Ready] light on the printer panel should blink repeatedly, indicating that the data is being downloaded, and intermittently, the [Form Feed] light will blink, indicating that it is moving to the next macro.
  23. If it does not do this, make sure that your printer is set up appropriately (see [Configuring the printer] above) and that all of the boxes in the table were selected when you started generating the .ALL file. If that is all OK, seek professional advice.

If everything works, test the setup by loading the SEURCLIN.MDB application and printing a form from the CheckInPatient Access form.

Supplement: To force a status page to be printed from the application, not the printer (Geoff Corb):
  1. From the Flash SIMM utility, select [Options] -> [Documentation] -> [Print Status Page]. While the status page is printing, the LED display on the printer will read "FS statuspage". This will change to "READY" after a few moments.

 

Created by James C.S. Liu, M.D. on Friday, August 28, 1998
Updated by Geoffrey J. Corb on 14 September 1998