Printing documentation

Many companies have to supply the documentation of used components when the project will be delivered to the client. With MatStream all the documents added to the items of a bill of materials can be automatically printed. This is one of the unique features of MatStream.

Documents that don't have a linked application in Windows can not be printed.
An application must be installed on your pc, that can handle the file format of the attached files.
  

1. Select Attached documents from the Print menu in Bill Of Materials. The Print documentation window will be displayed. MatStream will analyze the attached documentation and the coversheets will be generated.
2. Document set as 'Look at it' , for these documents you have to decide if the have to be printed this time. Like the documentation of optional components. If these optional components are not used in this project, then you could decide not to print this documentation.
3. Select the Go button. MatStream will print the documents one by one. In case of an error, MatStream will wait for about 5 minutes before it continues with the next document.

How does it work.

MatStream opens for an attached document the application that is linked with this file format. Then it sends a print command to the application. The linked application will print the file, and closes. When the print file arrives in the print queue, MatStream  continuous with the next document. The reason for MatStream to wait for the file to arrive in the queue, is to guarantee the correct order. If two different applications print a document, you would never know with one will be the fastest.

By default a file format is linked to an application when the application is installed. It is possible to link an other application to a certain a file format. See the Windows documentation if this is necessary. 

Some useful application that can be used for this automatic print feature are:
Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, Adobe Acrobat Reader version 4.0, Microsoft Photo Editor.