AFP Resources

This course teaches delegates how to create and/or use Advanced Function Presentation (AFP) resources.

This course is intended for all users who need to design, create and/or implement Advanced Function Presentation (AFP) resources. This may include operations support personnel, programmers, analysts and systems programmers.

Delegates should be familiar with the basic concepts of printing and spooling in an operating system.

NOTE: This course needs to be run on customer premises, using customer facilities for the labs. It is therefore necessary that the programs required for the labs are installed on the customer’s machines (Page Printer Formatting Aid (PPFA) and Overlay Generation Language (OGL) utilities).

During this course, delegates perform a range of tasks which are necessary to meet the requirements of many applications:

• Create page definitions.
• Create form definitions.
• Create electronic overlays.
• Select fonts.
• Select page segments as.
• Use the Page Printer Formatting Aid (PPFA) utility.
• Use the Overlay Generation Language (OGL) utility.

An Overview of AFP
Concepts and terminology.
AFP resources.
Using fonts and code pages.
Categories of AFP application.
More about Presentation.

Electronic Overlays
Overlay concepts.
OGL syntax and coding example.
Creating overlays using OGL.

Page Definitions
Processing line data print files.
Using channel codes.
PPFA syntax and worked examples.
Creating page definitions using PPFA.

Fields in Page Definitions
Field positioning using PPFA.
Creating a bar code using a field.
Creating a page definition with fields.

Form Definitions
Printing composed pages.
Using field suppression and overlays.
PPFA syntax and worked examples.
Creating form definitions using PPFA.

Graphics and Image with AFP
Concepts and terminology.
Creating AFP image objects.
Using page segments.

Bringing it all together
Placing data on the overlays built earlier.

Multiple-Up and Power Positioning
Basic power positioning.
Enhanced power positioning.
Overlays and power positioning.

More Advanced Techniques
Multiple page formats in page definitions and copy groups in form definitions.
Relative PRINTLINE in page definitions.
Record formatting data options.
Duplexing options.
Using table reference characters.
Conditional processing in page definitions.
More on bar codes.
Practicals exploiting several of these.