Define local printers for direct print

With ForNAV 5.3 and ForNAV Report Pack 5.3 (and later versions), you can now define local printers and print ForNAV reports to them directly, without using the usual PDF Print dialog. It is also possible to specify printer attributes, such as Paperkind (A4, Letter, …), Landscape, Duplex, Copies, Color, and Paper Source (paper bins).

Note:

For this to work, you must:

1. Install ForNAV 5.3 (or a later version).
2. Install the ForNAV Report Pack 5.3 (either from the Gallery if you are running Business Central OnPrem or from Microsoft AppSource if you are running Business Central Cloud).
3. Upgrade your existing reports – at least those that you want to print directly – to ForNAV 5.3 if you are running Business Central OnPrem.

The Default printer is always defined as the default printer on the machine where the browser window with Business Central runs.

The columns in the ForNAV Local Printers page specify the following:

• Cloud Printer Name – The name to specify in the Printer Selections page.
• Local Printer Name – The name of the printer on the local machine (DEFAULT means the default printer on the local machine).
• Description – The description of the printer, which is also shown in the Printer Management page:

• Paperkind – Default, Custom, A4, Letter, … (Default means the default for the region, Custom means that the size is specified by the Unit, Width and Height columns).
• Unit – Unit of measure for the custom paper size.
• Width and Height – The paper size.
• Color – Specifies if the printout should be in color or grey scale.
• Landscape – Specifies the paper orientation: default for the report, or portrait or landscape.
• Duplex – Default, simplex, vertical, or horizontal.
• Copies – The number of copies.
• Paper Source Kind – The paper tray (Printer Specific, Default, Upper, Middle, Lower, …).
• Printer Specific Paper Source Name – Name of the of the printer specific paper source.
• Scale Mode and Scale – Specifies if the document is printed in the actual size, fitted, or zoomed to a scale percentage.

   

  Note:
  

  Most printer drivers will not work with the predefined paper sources (Upper, Lower, and so on). You must define a Printer Specific
  Paper Source Kind and a Printer Specific Paper Source Name. If the predefined paper source does not exist, the printer prints out a list of the valid paper sources and printer specific paper source names after the last page of the report. You can use this to identify the correct combination of Paper Source Kind and Printer Specific Paper Source Name.

   

When you have specified a printer on the ForNAV Local Printers page, you can use it on the Printer Selections page to specify which printer to print to for a ForNAV report:

The next step is to download and install the ForNAV Direct Print Client: www.fornav.com/directprint.

After you have downloaded the ForNAV local printer, you are ready to print and can run one of your ForNAV reports to test it.

When you run the report and click Print on the request page, the download notification appears in your browser – in this example the new Microsoft Edge browser:

To print the report to your local printer (and next time you print, not get the download notification), click Always open files of this type.

Direct print to a local printer also works in AL-code and Report.Print will print directly to a local printer without opening the request page.

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