Improvements for Project Report creation

[triokenwood]

In the <File><Create Project Report> menu option, might I suggest the following as improvements:-

• 1.) Instead of generating the report in HTML format, can it be created using RTF or DOC formats (even, perhaps, XML)?
  2.) Can the report automatically use the 'light background' style when being created?

The reasoning behind these requests is that the report is alomst certainly going to be sent to a printer - to aid in project verification, perhaps even debugging. As everyone knows, HTML is simply not designed to be 'printed', and any attempts to do so are always going to involve a series of 'kludges'.

I had to generate a report the other day, after having selected a 'light background' style, and then had to spend over an hour just 'kludging' the HTML over into MS Word, using a series of auto-scrolling screen-captures (thanks to Snag-It !!).

How much easier would it have been to take the report strainght into a word-processor, complete with correctly inserted page breaks, and appropriate use of portrait and landscape pages to handle all the code segments?

Then again, perhaps I am one of only a very few FC users that sometimes has to resort to seeing, on paper, the 'big picture' with all the code legible and laid out on a (large) table (or pinned to a wall). After all, if I 'could' foolow the code easily by looking at it on-screen, the the actual Flowcode GUI already provides a 'better' interface than that provided by a clunky HTML document.

Cheers,
Bill

[Steve]

Thanks Bill. When we first created this feature, we intended it to export to other formats but were unsure how many people used this feature and have concentrated on other areas to improve the product. I have added this to the list and if it proves easy to add more export formats then I'm sure we'll get it done at some point. However, I can't promise a quick fix to this as we have many other issues on our list at the moment.

[EtsDriver]

PDF-A creation would be great!

[triokenwood]

Thanks Steve,

Yes - please prioritise accordingly.

If you need someone to 'beta-test' any offerings, drop me a line and I'll see what I can do.

Cheers,
Bill

[Jay Dee]

I admit its not often I would use it but very handy when trying to walk a customer or colleague through a program, they sometime want to be able to understand the flow code but dont have FC themselves, so an export to a compact printable format would be good. Personally, When learning, I've also resorted to printing off one of Bens examples and then scribbling on it in pen whilst flying to the next job.
In summation, yep, not super critical but there are certainly times it would be very handy.
Thanks J.