A-Shell Preview and EXtensions ("APEX") is a built-in component of A-Shell for Windows and ATE. At the user’s option or under program control, APEX receives a print file and re-directs it into a preview window. That window displays an image of the report and provides the user with various viewing options such as zoom, show multiple pages or single page, etc. After previewing the report, the user may then print the report as it was originally intended to be printed (i.e., to the originally-specified printer), print it under user control (different printer, say, or landscape instead of portrait), or discard it. The purpose of the viewer, as with all such print preview functions, is to make sure that you are printing what you think you are printing—and to save time, energy, money and paper in the process. In some cases, viewing the report may eliminate the need for printing entirely.
APEX offers a variety of controls and options to facilitate viewing the report. Most of these items and how to use them are fairly obvious.
APEX also includes an Extensions element, through which plug-in functions—included with A-Shell or supplied by a developer using the published interface—can be added to the APEX toolbar to perform various kinds of report post-processing. The most popular of these, included in the standard distribution of A-Shell, are Export to XLS, which converts a report into a spreadsheet, and Email Report.
Some of the tools and options of APEX are briefly described below.
Title Bar and Tool Bar
The APEX title bar displays information about the report: original filename ("tstz" in this example), a sequence number (-1), printing this session, temporary extension (.APF for "A-Shell print file"), the number of pages in the report, Windows printer for which this report is intended, and the printer properties being used for printing. The toolbar provides options (in order from left) to set zoom percentage (10% to 999%); zoom in; zoom out; single page; multi-page grid (drop-down menu); page number / back / forward; print setup; print; help; close; print per application; find text (search); open another report; APEX preferences; export to XLS; export preferences; email report; email preferences.
Multi-Page Grid
Clicking on the multi-page grid option (see toolbar above) offers choices for the layout of multiple pages. You can (barely) see the grid choices below near the top left. The full screen shows the report in the 4 (across) by 2 (down) grid.
Find Text (Search)
Clicking the find text tool and entering a word into the "Find" dialog box ("exitcode" in this case) causes all the occurrences of "exitcode" on the current (first, in this case) page to be highlighted. Clicking "Find Next" displays the highlighted words on the next applicable page, etc.
