Prism Users Guide - Chapter 2. Basics
2.10 Print/Email Documents
This section has information about printing and emailing documents in Prism.
- 2.10.1 Print Update, Update Only
- 2.10.2 Configure Print Settings
- 2.10.3 Email Documents
- 2.10.4 Export from Print Preview
2.10.1 Print Update, Update Only
When the transaction is balanced and ready to be updated, you have two choices: Print Update or Update Only. If a coupon is to be issued, be sure to select a print design that includes "Coupon" in the description.
| Button | Description |
|---|---|
| Print Update | Selecting Print Update will update the transaction and displays the print dialog for printing or emailing the receipt. |
| Update Only | Only will update the transaction without displaying the print dialog. To use the Update Only option, a user must belong to a group with the security permission "POS - Allow Update Only at POS". |
Print Modal Options
In the Print modal, you can change the following print settings. The available options will depend on the settings enabled in Node Preferences > Hardware > Print Preferences.
| Print Option | Notes |
|---|---|
| Print Design | Select the design you want to use to print the receipt. Default = Receipt 40 col. |
| Printer | Select the printer (from the printers defined on system). Default = default system printer |
| Quantity | Select the minus or plus buttons to change the print quantity. Default = 1 |
| Email Address | If a customer is entered on the transaction and that customer's record has an email address assigned, that email will be entered and the Email button will be enabled. Before emailing the receipt, you can confirm with the customer that the entered email address is correct and then edit it, if necessary. If the customer has multiple email addresses, you can click the Select Email button to choose the desired address. |
| Print button | Touch or click the Print button to send the print command to the printer. |
| Preview button | Select Preview to see how the printed receipt will look, based on the currently selected settings. |
| Email button | Select Email to email a copy of the receipt to the entered Email Address. Note: The Email button is only enabled if a valid email address is entered. |
| Print/Email | Select this button to both print and send an email copy. Note: The Print/Email button is only enabled if a valid email address is entered. |
Update Only
The Update Only button will update the transaction without displaying the print dialog. Depending on how preferences are configured, an email copy of the receipt may be sent to the customer. To use the Update Only button, a user must belong to a group assigned the POS - Update Only permission.
2.10.2 Printer Setup and Configuration
Before you can print documents in Prism, make sure you have configured Prism preferences, including HAL settings in the workstation record. Here are the high-level steps:
- Install the necessary drivers for the printer on a Prism workstation and connect the printer.
- Define a new Printer Type for the printer(s), if needed. The printer types you define can be assigned to individual printers. In multi-printer environments, this can help users to identify the correct printer to use.
- Adjust the Print Actions in Hardware > Print Preferences, if needed. This enables you to customize the workflow at POS when a user clicks Print/Update. For example, you can choose whether or not to display the print dialog, email receipts, etc.
- If you defined a Printer Type in Step 2, assign the type to an individual printer in HAL Settings. (Edit Workstation > HAL Settings).
- At POS, when the user clicks the Print or Print Update button, the print action specified in preferences will take place. The user can modify the settings (e.g. print design), if necessary. When the user prints a document at POS, the Print dialog displays only those document designs that are for either OPOS or standard Printers; other print designs are automatically filtered out of the display.
Printer Types
Printers in retail are typically used for specific purposes or are used in specific locations. For example, the printer used for printing price tags is usually different from the printer used to print receipts or documents like vouchers. Likewise, there might be a dedicated backoffice printer. Printer Types enable you to group printers by purpose or location. These Printer Types are used to select the Default Printer for the Print Dialog, and for selecting active printers for the Print action. A set of default printer types is defined (Receipt, Tag), but you can define you own types in Hardware > Printer Types preferences. After defining Printer Types, you can then assign a printer and printer type to individual workstations in the HAL Settings at the workstation levels.
Assigning Default Design
You can assign one of the designs as the default design to use for a printer. When a default design is assigned, the selected print design will be already selected in the Print Design dropdown. A user can change the design at print time, if desired, but assigning a default helps ensure the correct OPOS design is used. For example, if you defined an "OPOS" printer type, you can then assign one of the OPOS designs to always be selected by default for that printer. If you assign an OPOS printer to a printer type, then choosing that as your default printer type will only display appropriate print designs.
Print Preferences
Print Preferences enable you to customize the printing process, including settings for sending digital receipts. Defining these settings helps to speed up the printing process because employees can just accept the defaults rather than have to make selections from dropdowns in the Print dialog.
Select the desired Print Area from the menu on the left.
Define print settings for the area and save.
Override Sub Areas
Some areas of Print Preferences have sub areas. When defining preferences for these areas, there is an extra option to Override Sub-Areas. If the Override Sub-Areas check box is selected, it means that the settings defined at the root level will override any sub-level settings.
| Option | Description |
|---|---|
| Hide default print designs | If selected, then the default print designs shipped with the product are hidden. This will leave only your custom designs available as selections in the Print Design drop-down. |
| Override Sub Areas | The Override Sub-Areas setting determines if the child sub-areas are editable in Admin Console and consumed during POS printing. If the Override Sub-Areas checkbox is enabled for the POS Receipt parent area, the child areas for Standard, Return and Order are read-only and not consumed during POS printing. |
| Default action | Select the default action to take when a user clicks the Print/Update button: Display a dialog so the user can choose an action, always email, or always print. |
| Default printer type | Select a default printer type to use. Define Print Types in Admin Console > Node Preferences > Hardware > Printer Types |
| Default printer design | Select the print design that will be used by default. You can change the selection at run time, if needed. |
| Default copies | This setting enables you to define the number of copies of a document that will be printed by default. Printing multiple copies of a receipt or other document is required (or desired) in certain regions. When the user prints the document, the Print dialog will already be set to print the defined number of copies. |
| Default Email Design | Select the email design that will be used by default. You can change the selection at run time, if needed. For example, you might want to use a 40-column design for the default print design but use an 8x11 design as the default email design. |
| Print dialog controls | Print button, Email button, Print and Email button (two actions combined in one button), Preview button, Printer selection, number of copies, print design selection and email design selection. |
Sample Prism Print Preferences for POS Transactions:
Air Print
Make sure the printer can be accessed on the same WiFi network that the iOS device is using. (Contact your network administrator to accomplish this.) Open the Prism iOS Launcher and login to Prism. The Launcher registers a generic "AirPrint" resource to the Prism server upon login. In addition, if a Bluetooth printer is paired with the device, this Bluetooth printer will also be registered. If connecting through the Prism Proxy, Windows printers will also be registered.
Create a document to be printed from Prism.From the print menu, select "AirPrint". This opens Apple's AirPrint dialog box, which is built into iOS. From there the user may select the printer from the WiFi network, and the number of copies to be printed. Once printing is complete, the AirPrint dialog box will close and control returns to Prism.
Print Groups
Print Groups enable you to group similar documents together and print the entire group with one print command. This is especially useful for retailers who regularly need to print multiple copies of receipts that have slight differences in the designs. For example, some retailers keep a printed copy of the receipt at the store with the word "copy" on it (to prevent fraudulent returns).
Basic Steps
1. Add a new Print Group in Document Designer.
2. Configure Print Preferences for that document type. Select the option to Use Groups and select the group you created.
3. When printing at POS, select the option to Use Groups and select the group you created.
Add a new print group in Document Designer:
Launch Document Designer and log in.
Click the Groups button.
Select an Area (e.g., POS Receipt).
Click the New button.
Enter a Group Name and select the designs to include in the group by moving them from the Available column to the Selected column. Use the arrow keys to move designs back and forth. Click OK to save the new group.
The Group Name is now listed in the design groups. Click Close.
Configure Print Preferences to use groups
1. Navigate to Admin Console > Node Preferences > Hardware > Print Preferences
2. Select the Area or Subarea that has a group defined in Doc Designer. For example, POS Transactions area and POS Receipt sub area.
3. Select a Default Action: Print or Print/Email.
4. Select a Printer Type.
5. Select a DEFAULT Print Design (this is required before using Groups).
6. Select the USE GROUPS checkbox.
7. Select the Report Group to use.
8. Save the changes.
Print Groups at POS
Create a new receipt. List any item and tender. Choose Print/Update.
Within the main print menu, select the 'Use Groups' checkbox in the upper right-hand corner. In the Print Design drop-down, select the desired Print Group. Click Print.
2.10.3 Email Documents
[Note: This section explains how to configure Prism to send email using username/password as the Authentication Method.]
You can configure Prism to send the following document types by email:
- POS transactions: When updating a transaction, email the receipt in addition to or instead of printing a physical copy. You can send a PDF or HTML copy of the receipt to the email address entered in the customer record (default) and/or one or more email addresses entered by the Associate at run-time
- Backoffice documents: Send a PDF or HTML copy of a purchase order, ASN, voucher or transfer slip to one or more user-entered addresses.
Requirements
It is the end user's responsibility to enter the correct SMTP server host name and port information.
Sample Email Server Preferences using Username/Password as the Authentication Type:
Steps for Emailing Documents (Authentication Type = Username/Password)
1. Navigate to Admin Console > Node Preferences > Node Selection. Drill down to the desired store so that the store's list of workstations is displayed.
2. With the list of workstations displayed, navigate to Admin Console > Node Preferences > Email Server Preferences.
- Select Username/Password as the Authentication Type.
- Set the Email Authentication Type to "username/password."
- Set the Email Host Name to the IP Address or FQDN of the machine used as the email server.
- Set the SMTP Port to the port used by your email application (Default=443, SSL Enabled)
- Enter the username/password that will be used to authenticate with the email server.
Email Server Preference Fields
Refer to the following table for information about configuring the fields in the Email Settings area.
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| Email Server Authentication Type | At the Store or Subsidiary level, Email Server Authentication Type is set to Username/Password and cannot be edited. At the Workstation level, the Authentication Type is editable and you can select Username/Password or OAuth. (See the Prism OAuth Setup topic for details) |
| Email Host Name | Enter the IP Address or domain name of the machine used as the email server. |
| SMTP Port | Set to the port used by your email application. Default = 587 |
| Server User Name | Enter the user name that will be used to authenticate with the email server (defined Email Host Name field). |
| Server Password | Enter the password that will be used to authenticate with the email server (defined in the Email Host Name field.) |
| Send Email Address | Enter the email address that will appear in the "From:" line of the email. |
| Use SSL | If selected, Secure Socket Layer (TLS/SSL) communication is used. If using SSL, change the SMTP Port to the appropriate port for your email server. |
| Document Email Subject Line | This setting determines the default Subject line when emailing backoffice documents (not POS receipts). By default, the "Subject" line of the email will be "Your document." You can change the default as needed. |
| POS Receipt Email Subject Line | This setting determines the default Subject line when emailing POS Receipts. By default, the "Subject" line of the email will be "Your receipt #" followed by the transaction document number.You can change the default as needed. |
| Email Attachment Type | PDF: Prism attaches the document as a PDF file to the email. HTML: Prism embeds the body of the email as HTML |
2.10.4 Export from Print Preview
(2.5.5) The Print Preview screen includes an Export option. This enables users to export any document or grid, including vouchers, transfer orders, and inventory in the following formats:
- Notepad (.txt)
- HTML
- Excel
- Excel (as text)
1. Click Export on the Print Preview screen.
2. Select a file format:
Excel Required for Excel Options
Excel options are only available when Excel is installed locally.