PRN2FILE

PR2FILE - Capture printer output to text file

by Rick Klemetson

First an explanation to those unfamiliar with PRN2FILE - It is a DOS utility that redirects the printer output from the LPT port to a DOS text file.
Click Here to download Zip File
Click Here to download COM File
Click Here to download DOC File

We successfully set it up in Windows 98 to help in running large databases on our network through temple ready so that we could get the temple report to enter the temple dates back into the database and identify some other errors without having 100+ pages of report. Since Temple ready is on our network, it becomes possible to run very large files through in a relatively shore period of time.

I don't have the files on my home computer - but a quick summary. In the c:\autoexec.bat file I added a line that redirected LPT2 to c:\temple.txt
"c:\pas\prn2file c:\temple.txt /p2"
I sent it to LPT2 so that it would not affect my other printing on Printer Port 1 (LPT1)

then I created several icons that helped in the administration. A critical point is that the data is continually added to the end of the temple.txt file every time you print. So you need to be able to copy the temple.txt file to the A drive and then delete the file so that the next time you print it will create a new file without any of the old data.

I copied the c:\pas\pasetup.txt file to pasetup.org and pasetup.asc I edited the pasetup.asc to
PRINT1TYPE=ASCII
PRINT1FILE=ASCII.FSP
PRINT1CON=LPT2 (Parallel)

I then created icons to copy the desired pasetup file to pasetup.txt You could also setup two unique directories for PAS with the two configurations then use a separate icon for each one.

Using this setup you could actually send a temple submission gedcom to someone over the internet, have them run it on their network, create a temple.sub file and temple.txt file and then send them back over the internet. You then copy the temple.sub file to a blank disk and send it to the temple. We've tested this to help those in outlying areas or those with major handicaps, but haven't sought permission to actually offer it publicly.