Archive for: C. System

You want to use specific paper for your invoices? This FAQ entry will show you how to assign different printer trays for various pages of your documents.

In General

Printer drivers are fairly complex. This method will work for many printers, but there is no guarantee that it will work on all printers.

In general, follow these steps:

• Select the template for which you want to save printer settings
• Modify the settings
• timeSensor LEGAL will save your printer settings in a small file along with the template
• Before printing, timeSensor LEGAL will send the printer settings to the printer, then print the document

There are two (under Windows, three) methods to create printer settings and send them to the printer:

1. With plain text, i.e. the settings are sent to the printer using commands such as "Choose paper tray nr. 3" or "Print in landscape format"
2. As Print Record BLOB, i.e. all the settings are saved in one single Print Record and sent to the printer before each print
3. Under Windows, it is possible to install the driver several times and set each one up. You will have several copies of the same driver, each with its own specificities. One driver will e.g. select tray 1, the other one will select tray 2. In timeSensor LEGAL, just assign the right driver to your templates.

Each method may work better than the other, depending on your printer and OS. The first and third methods work well with Windows, whereas the second method seems to work better under Mac.

Set Up the Printer Settings

Go to the template editor and select the template which you want to make changes to. At the top right, click on "Output Options".

Click on the small printer symbol to use the first recommended method or hit and hold the "alt" key when you click on the small printer symbol to use the second recommended method:

• Mac OS X
  • Simple click  -> Print Record BLOB (Method 2)
  • Alt + click -> plain text (Method 1)
• Windows
  • Simple click -> plain text (Method 1)
  • Alt + click -> Print Record BLOB (Method 2)

timeSensor LEGAL saves the printer preferences in a small .txt or .blob file and saves it locally on your workstation. This means that the printer settings will only work on your workstation. In a multi-workstation environment, you will have to set up the printer settings on each workstation.

You can also set up a tray or a printer using the "Printer parameters" button for multi-document templates, such as the invoice template. This way, you can print the invoice, the invoice details and the pay-in slip from different trays or printers.

Tips:

• You can select each template, but do not have to make the changes in all languages. The printer settings are set up for all language versions of the template.
• These methods may not represent the steps for each option on each printer accurately. Please refer to your printer support if some options are not available or not rendered properly.
• Event though you can open Word templates from timeSensor LEGAL, the printer settings for Word are not controlled by TSL. You can only set up printer parameters for Word templates in Word.

Tips for Administrators

If you're using a consistent set of printers throughout your network, you can save time by just copying the printer settings on a USB stick or your server and pasting it from there on all workstations.

timeSensor LEGAL saves the printer settings under this path:

• macOS: Users/Username/Library/Application Support/timeSensor/STUFF/PRINTERS
• Windows: Users/Username/timeSensor/STUFF/PRINTERS
  

Go to the folder and copy the files on your USB key or server. You can just paste the files in the same folder on all other workstations. Before each print, timeSensor LEGAL checks this folder for printer settings and uses them automatically.

Further:

• The folder "Library" is hidden under macOS. The easiest way to find it is by holding the "alt" key down while selecting "Library" in the "Go to" menu.
• If you only wish to copy some printer settings, use the template's ID in timeSensor LEGAL. You will find the ID of each template if you open the bottom part of the print options. The ID is shown on the right side of the grey bar. Use the ID to find the corresponding printer settings file in the "PRINTERS" folder.
• 

It can be useful to keep some documents available at all times. Just take your iPad to court and access all archived documents in a case with it. timeSensor LEGAL lets you add archived documents from selected cases to a cloud directory.

First, choose a cloud service that you like and trust. Then, install the cloud service's software on your server. If you're using a single workstation edition, install the software on your workstation.

In the parameters, go to the tab "Cloud Drive" to identify the cloud drive. Choose "Select..." and navigate to your cloud directory. In a multi-workstation environment, you will see the directories on your server. It is advisable to add a dedicated folder for timeSensor LEGAL in your cloud directory.

Next, open a case folder and click on the Cloud Drive icon.

iPad preferences

When your timeSensor® LEGAL application does not open automatically, you may see this bar:

You can access the application with just a few clicks. Go to "File", "Open", and select "Remote Database...". You will see the usual access dialog box to connect to the server. If you've used a connection to the server in the past, you will see it in the tab "Recent". If the tab is empty or the connection fails, try to connect using the tab "Available", or enter the server's IP address under the tab "Custom".

Server volumes may be connected to the file system with different protocols (AFP, SMB, FTP, etc.). Whether or not it is possible to drag & drop files located on the server volume directly into timeSensor LEGAL will depend on this protocol.

Under Mac OS X, the server volumes from which you wish to drag & drop files from into timeSensor LEGAL should be connected with AFP protocol. If that is not the case, you will need to copy the files on the desktop first and archive them from there.

If you do not know under which protocol your server volumes operate, select the volume, then go to "File" and select "Get Info". In the information window, you will find the information you are looking for right next to the server's IP address. You may consider asking your IT administrator to connect the server volume with AFP.

Apple launched its backup software Time Machine with Mac OS X 10.5. It is integrated in the operating system of every Apple computer. We advise not to use Time Machine on your server for the following reasons:

• Time Machine does not allow setting a timeframe for backups. The software may start backing up data when every user is logged in and the system is running at full capacity. This could slow down the server.
• Time Machine only saves data sets. The criteria for saving data is whether it has been changed since the last backup. The 4D Server saves data in one big file which is changing all the time. Time Machine will therefore keep trying to back up this file.
• Furthermore Time Machine will not succeed in backing up the database because it cannot be backed up while it is in use. Users are continuously using and changing the data that Time Machine is trying to back up. In addition the cache is storing data which has not yet been transmitted to the hard disk.

It is mandatory to back up the 4D database with the 4D backup function. This ensures a complete copy of the files. Please configure the 4D backup function so that it starts every night, e.g. at 2 am. It is unlikely that users will be logged in at that time and the system will have enough capacity. This backup is your primary backup and it is saved on the same machine (but preferably on another hard drive) as your productive database.

The backup file should then be copied to another hard drive which should be located outside the law office. This copy can be made using tools like Carbon Copy Cloner. It is important that you check this secondary backup regularly and that it is located outside your offices.