Re: Question on printing and drawers -- MIDRANGE-L

Look at the DDS specifications for printer file keywords and see which work
in SCS mode. The manual is out there in PDF.

From
System i Programming DDS for printer files Version 6 Release 1

DRAWER (Drawer) keyword in printer files

You use this record-level keyword to specify the drawer from which
noncontinuous forms are selected. The format of the keyword is:

DRAWER(drawer-number | &drawer-number)

Drawer-number specifies the drawer from which the paper or the envelope is
to be fed. Valid values are 1 - 255 and *E1 as follows:

1 The paper is fed from the first drawer on the sheet-feed paper handler.

2 The paper is fed from the second drawer on the sheet-feed paper handler.

n The paper is fed from the nth drawer on the sheet-feed paper handler.

*E1 The envelope is fed from the envelope drawer on the sheet-feed paper
handler.

You can specify the drawer number as a constant or a program-to-system
field. When you specify the drawer number as a program-to-system field, the
field must exist in the same record format as the DRAWER keyword. It must
be defined as a length of 4, data type A and usage P.

If you do not specify the DRAWER keyword, the value specified on the DRAWER
parameter of the CRTPRTF, CHGPRTF or OVRPRTF command determines the paper
source drawer.

DRAWER is ignored at run time if it is not specified on a page boundary.
The printer is on a page boundary when no named or constant fields are
processed for a page. As soon as a named or constant field is processed,
the printer is no longer on a page boundary. The printer is on a page
boundary again when a SKIP, SPACE, or ENDPAGE keyword is processed that
causes the printer to move to a new page.

DRAWER, SKIP, and SPACE keywords are processed in the following order:

SKIPB SPACEB DRAWER SPACEA SKIPA

DRAWER is in effect only for the record format specified. After records
with the specified record format are processed, the paper-source drawer for
the next record format (if the DRAWER keyword is not specified) is the
drawer specified at the file level (CRTPRTF, CHGPRTF, or OVRPRTF command).

For files created with DEVTYPE(*SCS), if the DRAWER keyword is specified on
a record format that spans several pages, it remains in effect only for the
page on which it is specified.

On Fri, Jul 18, 2025 at 3:26 PM Jon Segasture <rvrratjon@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Hello everyone,

I am helping a company that, believe it or not, is moving their AS/400
(yes, it is an AS/400) model 170 running V5R2 to a cloud provider. They
bought that machine probaby in 1998 to get y2k compliant. They got their
moneys worth and then some. They currently print invoices on a tractor feed
form that are envelope size and are stuffed in an envelope and mailed out.
We are looking to move that to a laser printer, but the first page will
need to be on pre-printed form and all other pages need to print on regular
paper. I have always done that in the past using AFPDS going to laser
printers such as the IBM Infoprint printers with IPDS capabilities and we
would print the first page from a drawer with the pre-printed form and the
other pages from another drawer with plain paper. My question is how can we
accomplish this if we just want to use a regular laser printer with
multiple drawers but without IPDS capability? I would imagine it the spool
file is defined as SCS, the drawer keyword in
the DDS won't do anything, and I know if I send an AFPDS spool file to
an non-IPDS printer, it just laughs at me and puts the spool file on hold.

Any insight is appreciated.

Thanks, Jon

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