I have Specifications set up in File/Options of OE (080421) and this is working perfectly. I have a couple of customers that require a different spec than the rest so in Edit Customer on the Invoicing tab, I changed the Print spec to a different spec. I thought by doing this that when invoices were entered for this customer that it would override the default in OE File/Options specification and use the one that is entered in Edit/Customer/Invoice/Print Spec. Unfortunately, that isn't working and it's still defaulting to the spec in OE File/Options. Is there a way to change the default print spec for individual customers?

Hi Susan,

When you print invoices, which spec selection method is selected? 'Use selected spec', 'Use document spec' or 'Use current customer spec'? You need to use the 'current customer' choice if you want to have the specification from the Customer record applied to the printed document. Indeed this can be set for individual customers.

If you have a few customers that require a special spec and the majority remainder all use a particular spec, you only need to edit those special customers to set a spec. When printing using the 'current customer' spec selection, any customer that doesn't have a special spec set for that document/print method will look at the OE Company Profile and the Optional/Specs tab for what spec to use. I would suggest setting your desired specs for your print methods in the Company Profile, and edit your customers that need a different spec. This way, you only have to print once and the desired spec will be used. This would be different that the defaults found in the File/Options area that you referred to - which of course are not particular to print/fax/email.

Something is wrong. I have the default specs set up in OE Company Profile. I have the exact same default specs set up on each users OE/File/Options/Specifications. This was working without issues until I added 4 new spec sheets. Then in Edit/Customer on the Invoicing tab, I went into 4 customers accounts and added the new spec sheets. Now I am having several problems.

#1. When we used to print invoices the "Printing Invoices" dialog box would close automatically after the printing was done. Now it stays open until we close it manually. This is creating a lot of confusion and people not knowing why the box is still there are printing duplicaitons. How do I stop this?? We could be accidentally double shipping orders and only billing once!

#2. Even though I am choosing "Use current customer specification" the spec is NOT defaulting to the correct customer spec. It is defaulting to the spec in OE Company Profile and OE/File/Options/Specifications. It is completely ignoring the spec that I have assigned to the specific customer.

#3. Even when I manually choose the correct spec for the particular customer (i.e. Branch Invoice 1 copy) it actually prints to another spec on file (Branch Invoice 2 copies). The spec appears correct in the list and I confirmed in Order Designer that "Branch Invoice 1 copy" is in fact 1 copy in specification options. It is named OE$intd4.dat and the 2 copy version is named OE$intd3.dat. There is some kind of bug here. I can try deleting the specs I'm having problems with and recreate them I suppose?? Integrity checks pass without errors.

Please help. These issues are creating a lot of chaos and I really need to get things working properly ASAP.

Hi Susan,

It's working for me when I try it, so indeed something is wrong. Let me briefly explain how the spec selection works, technically.

When an order is created, all of the print/fax/email spec names for all document types (order, invoice, credit) from the customer are saved with the order. These saved values are the 'Document spec'. Blank is a valid value, and this will be the case with orders entered for customers without special specs. You can edit the order/invoice/CN grids to see what spec names are saved with each document. An example is 'OE Invoice Print spec'.

Any special specs saved on the customer would of course be the 'Current customer spec'. These can be edited on the customer at any time.

When it comes time to print documents, there are 3 choices:
Use Selected spec: This one is simple - whatever spec is selected within the Print Orders/Invoices/CNs screen is used. All other spec settings everyhere else are ignored.

Use Document spec: The spec name saved on the document for the respective document type and print method is used for printing if it is non-blank. If it is blank, then the spec chosen on the Print screen is used. If you delete the selected spec on the print screen, then the spec from the Company Profile is used. Essentially, if a special spec is on the document then use it, otherwise use the Selected spec if non-blank, otherwise use the company profile default.

Use Current Customer spec: Whatever spec is saved on the customer on the Invoicing tab is used. If it is blank for the document type and print method used, then the spec chosen on the Print screen is used. If you delete the selected spec on the print screen, then the spec from the Company Profile is used. Essentially, if a special spec is on the customer then use it, otherwise use the Selected spec if non-blank, otherwise use the company profile default.
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Based on this, #2 and #3 for you are not behaving as I see it working. Can you confirm that the oewin.exe program file you are using is dated April 21, 2008? Just in case an install error misleads you in the version of OE you think is installed but in fact is not. The 'use customer spec' choice really wasn't working well until the most recent version of OE.

For #2, if the customer has a valid spec selected for the print method, it will be used and everything else will be ignored.

For #3, if you change the selected spec from the print screen, it will only be used if there is no special spec for the print method.

Also confirm that the specification titles on your specs are what you expect them to be, from the Spec Designer.
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As for #1, you will not be asked the question 'Did everything print OK?' if you fax or email documents. Also, you will not be asked if you use the 'Use Document spec' or 'Use Customer spec' choices. This question will only be asked if you Print to a printer and use the 'Selected spec'.

The file OEWIN.EXE is dated April 25, 2008. OE/Help/About says version 8.1B (080421). Everything looks to be installed correctly. I also confirmed that the titles in the spec designer appear correctly.

I added "OE Invoice Print Spec" to the OE/Edit Invoices grid and it does show OE$intd3.dat on the specific Invoices for customers that I have specs set up for in Edit/Customer. I realize now that I was incorrect above when I said in #2 that it was completely ignoring the customer’s spec. Actually, when I print using “Use Document Spec” or “Use Current Customer Spec” it does print, email, etc. the correct spec as selected in Edit/Customer. The confusion is because the spec named in the “Printing Invoices” window still says the default spec from OE/File/Options even though it actually prints the spec from Edit/Customer.

When I print using “Use Selected Spec” my “Did Everything Print OK” window returns, however it prints the default spec from OE/File/Options instead of the one I want in Edit/Customer.

So with that said, I can resolve this issue by selecting “Use Current Customer Spec” or “Use Document Spec” however, when I select “Use Current Customer Spec” one time for one invoice for one customer, it saves that selection for everyone else using Order Entry. This is okay except that we lose the “Did Everything Print OK” window completely for all customers and all invoices.

Is there a way to get the print window to automatically close after it’s been printed? Or get the “Did Everything Print OK” window to appear with the “Use Current Customer" selection? Maybe this is just something we have to get used to? So far it’s causing our staff to print duplications. I guess they’re expecting that “Did everything print OK” message to appear and they keep clicking print until they realize that message is never going to pop up, the print window is never going to close and there are now several copies of their invoice on the printer.

Please let me know if you have a suggestion for this. Otherwise I think I have the specs understood now and I will test run it live this coming week. I will have to retrain people about the print window that stays after they've already printed. It should be okay once new habits are in place.

Hi Susan,

First of all, I'm glad to hear that when you choose the 'use customer spec' option, it is behaving as such.

You are correct that if you use the 'Use selected spec', the message 'Did everything print OK' will appear, but it won't for the other spec choices. You cannot use the Customer/Document method and get the 'Print OK' message at the end. There is a technical reason for this - you wouldn't want this message to appear for every printed invoice, which is what would happen if we prompted this message for Use Customer Spec.

In fact, there are clients who are happy that there are ways to prevent this message from appearing (for high-volume and speed reasons), but I certainly understand that it can also be useful too as an indicator that the print job has been completed.
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In the Company Profile on the System Options tab, there is an option called 'Remember Form Settings'. This will save all the choices when you access a Print screen, whether it is for a single customer/document or a group of documents. Perhaps you don't want this option set? If disabled, then the default system settings will always get loaded for the choices.

There currently isn't a way to automatically close the Print form screen after printing has completed. I can forward that along to the programmers for a future release.

Let us know if there is anything else that could make things easier, or needs better explanation on how it works.

Thanks for this further explanation. We are running everything successfully now.