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Ticket Designer
Overview
The Ticket Designer lets you design tickets, invoices and or reports (we'll just call them tickets from here on) that are printed during the Ticketing process. The Ticket Designer includes a powerful Expression Builder that lets you perform calculations and format your data to suit your needs. You can design an entire ticket to be printed on plain paper or card stock, or fill in the fields on pre-printed tickets.
There is no limit to the number of designs that can be created and stored. Plus, EZScale can print up to three (3) different tickets to three (3) different printers each time a ticket is processed. You specify which ticket designs are printed under Tools | Options | General tab.
You get to the Ticket Designer under the Tools | Design Ticket menu.
EZT Files
Tickets designed and saved using the Ticket Designer are saved to files with a default extension of .EZT. EZT files may be saved anywhere, but we recommend that you save them in the \DATA directory under the EZScale installation directory. Because EZT files contain all the information necessary to generate a ticket, you can design a ticket on one computer and then copy the EZT file to another.
Main Window
When you start the Ticket Designer, the following window will appear. The view below shows the designer child window restored. It can also be maximized.
Note that the Ticket Designer has it's own menu system that replaces EZScale's normal menu.
File Menu
The File menu lets you create new designs, open existing designs, save the current design, print the design, and close the Ticket Designer.
New
To start a New ticket design, select File | New from the menu. If you have made changes to the current design and not saved them, you will be prompted to do so.
Open
Select File | Open from the menu to retrieve an existing design. If you have made changes to the current design and not saved them, you will be prompted to do so.
Save
To save the current design select File | Save from the menu. If this is a new design that has never been saved, a Save As dialog box will appear where you can enter a name and indicate the location to save your design. We recommend that all designs be saved in the \DATA directory under the EZScale installation directory. The default extension for ticket designs is .EZT. EZT files can be copied from one computer to another.
If the design was previously saved, it will be saved immediately overwriting the original file without the Save As dialog box appearing.
Save As
If you want to save a design under a new name, select File | Save As from the menu and the Save As dialog box will appear allowing you to enter a new name and indicate a location to save your design.
Selecting File | Printer Setup from the menu displays a standard Windows Printer Setup dialog box where you can define the output device for your ticket design.
The preferred output device, page size, orientation, etc. is stored with each ticket design in the .EZT file. If you later try an print a ticket designed for one printer on a different type of printer, EZScale will warn you during the Ticketing process. You can proceed, but the results may not be what you expect since different printers have different capabilities such as printable areas, margins, paper feeds, etc.
You can print a sample of your ticket design by selecting File | Print from the menu. The sample will print what you see in the Design View.
Close
When you are finished designing tickets, select File | Close to close the ticket designer and return to the EZScale main menu.
View Menu
The View menu lets you toggle between Design and Preview views of your ticket design.
Object Menu
The Object menu lets you Add, Delete, and Edit Expressions and Fonts on the ticket design form. You must be in Design mode use the Object menu commands.
Add
Opens the Expression Builder to create a new expression, then adds the new expression to the form. If you select Object | Add from the menu, the new expression will be placed somewhere near the center of the form.
You can also Add and object by right clicking the mouse at the location you want the expression to be placed and selecting Add from the popup menu. The Expression Builder will open to create a new expression, but the new expression will be located near where you originally right clicked the mouse on the form.
Delete
Deletes the currently selected object from the form.
Opens the Expression Builder to edit the expression for the selected object.
You can also get to the Expression Builder by right clicking on the selected object and selecting Edit Expression from the popup menu.
Edit Font Properties
Displays the Font dialog to change the font properties for the selected object.
After selecting a font, font style and size, click OK to apply your font to the selected object or Cancel to cancel the changes.
Note: We recommend that you select only TrueType or OpenType fonts. Avoid computer and non-designated fonts as they may look fine on the screen but probably won't output well to your printer.
You can get to the Edit Font dialog by right clicking on a selected object and selecting Edit Font Properties from the popup menu.
You must be in design view to add, delete and edit objects on the ticket design. You can switch to design view by:
Selecting
View | Design from the menu, or
Clicking
on the Design tab along the bottom of the from.
Below is a sample ticketed called Inside Printer shown in Design View.
Pallet
The size of the pallet or grid area where you design your ticket will be determined by the Printer Setup. The grid shows inches from the top left corner of the printed page. You may need to do some experimenting as every printer operates and outputs differently.
Scroll Bars
If the pallet is too large to view, you can use the scroll bars along the bottom and right of the form to see other parts of the design.
Moving Objects
You can move objects in design view by first selecting them then moving the mouse cursor to the center of the object. The cursor will change to a cross arrow.
Press and hold down the left mouse button as you drag the object to the new location. Release the left mouse button when the object is properly located.
Sizing Objects
You can size objects in design view by first selecting them then moving the mouse cursor to one of the six (6) sizing handles around the center of the object. The cursor will change to a two headed arrow showing the direction you can size the handle.
Press and hold down the left mouse button as you drag the sizing handle to resize the object. Release the left mouse button when the object is properly sized.
Design Tab
Clicking on the Design tab switches to Design View.
Preview Tab
Clicking on the Preview tab switches to Preview View.
Copies
You can modify the number of copies that are to be printed for each design by clicking the up or down arrows in the lower right hand corner of the form.
Preview gives you an idea of how you printed ticket is going to appear. Note that preview uses the expression names for the preview and does not attempt to use real data. Your actual tickets may appear different when the expressions are evaluated and real data is substituted.
You can switch to preview view by:
Selecting
View | Preview from the menu, or
Clicking
on the Preview tab along the bottom of the from.
Below is a sample ticketed called Inside Printer shown in Preview View.
Zoom
You can zoom in and out in preview view by double clicking the left and right mouse buttons on the preview.
Scroll Bars
You can scroll the preview using the scroll bars along the bottom and right of the form to see other parts of the preview.
Design Tab
Clicking on the Design tab switches to Design View.
Preview Tab
Clicking on the Preview tab switches to Preview View.
Copies
You can modify the number of copies that are to be printed for each design by clicking the up or down arrows in the lower right hand corner of the form.
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