Technical information

INSTALLATION AND ADMINISTRATION GUIDE
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t][DocClose]]
htm 4 HTML Document ["C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\OFFICE11\msohtmed.exe" /p
%1]
html 4 HTML Document ["C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\OFFICE11\msohtmed.exe" /p
%1]
pdf 4 Adobe Acrobat Document [[FilePrintSilentEx("%1")]]
ppt 4 Microsoft PowerPoint Presentation ["C:\Program Files\Microsoft
Office\OFFICE11\POWERPNT.EXE" /p "%1"]
txt 4 Text Document [%SystemRoot%\system32\NOTEPAD.EXE /p %1]
xls 4 Microsoft Excel Worksheet [[open("%1")][print()][close()]]
...
In this sample you can see that PowerPoint files (.ppt) will be imaged by "standard printing", meaning a particular
command line wil launch the tool and get it to print. Word documents (.doc) will be printed via DDE. Also note that Txt
files should be treated by an internal converter but can be switched over to Notepad (by adding the line
txt:mstotif:o: in the formatters.lst file).
Troubleshooting fax imaging
Generic troubleshooting
When having imaging troubles the first thing to determine is exactly which step in the process is going wrong. Below
you will find a diagram summarizing the various steps an incoming file may follow before becoming a valid TIFF file.
To diagnose the issue properly, here are a few classic questions you should try to get answers for:
Which type of input file is causing problems? All of them, only pdf, only doc, etc. ?
Is this problem happening for all documents of this type? Or only some of them ?
Can you provide Technical Support with a sample file you are having problems with ?
Tip
When your input file is a PostScript or PCL file, you can validate its contents by sending the document in raw form
to a printer (using a corresponding driver). This forces a processing of the commands in the file and will help you
see if the problem is in the conversion or in the original file. In order to do so, use the OS file copy command with
your printer as the destination file. For example if you declared a network PS printer named "MyPrinter" located
on a print server "PrintServer" you can use the following command:
> copy input.ps \\PrintServer\MyPrinter
Usually customer problems appear in the "upper" part of the process, i.e., the creation of a TIF file based on the input
document. But sometimes the server is able to generate a proper image which is altered by the Fax Interface Module
(FIM) or the fax transfer itself.
In order to isolate a problem in this part of the process, you may launch a sample vfx command with "-o
<filename>" option. This generates an output TIF file based on your original document in the same way the server
would during normal processing therefore allowing easier tests than a full job submission. For example:
> vfx -o output.tif input.file
If the output file obtained is correct then the problem comes from the FIM.
If the imaging problem is visible in the resulting TIF, the problem comes from the conversion.
If you reproduce the issue with one of your files, try to see if this particular file is the only one impacted, and what is
different; or if all files for a given format are suspected.
Assuming we are facing a conversion problem, we need to figure out which converter is used and thus which
"branch" in the diagram below we are currently going through. This is especially important for formats that can be
treated by different converters (text or pdf for example). So you need to review the contents of your
formatters.lst to be sure that the files are handled as you think they should be. Once you have ensured which
formatter is used, refer to its corresponding section in this troubleshooting guide for more detailed information about
it.