Print A Wall Chart

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Printing Wall Charts

actmenups_wallchart.gifThis feature will print a chart over a number of pages according to the specifications that you define. You can print a chart covering an extended period of time, and in great detail. If you are concentrating on one particular security this system is great to produce a chart that could be pasted along the wall with notes to remind you of historical events or effects of outside influences such as company announcements., allowing you to view the historical effect on the price.

This feature allows you to print using a standard single page printer or tractor feed printers.

From an open chart, select  the Print Wall Charts command from the chart's Action menu (refer to graphic on right) to open the Wall Chart Wizard.

 

 

Wall Chart Wizard

The Wall Chart Wizard contains a sequence of 8 dialog boxes to define the following print criteria:

If you are satisfied with the size of the wall chart to be produced, click Finish to commence printing.

A warning message will display asking you to confirm that the number of printed pages in the Wall Chart are satisfactory.

Click OK and you will be asked if you want to save the Setup for future use, refer to the Setup discussion below.

The Wall Chart will then print out. Each page will have a description of where it should be placed when the wall chart is assembled, refer to the Assembling the Wall Chart discussion, below.

New or Select Setup

The first dialog box allows you to select between creating a New Print Setup or using a Setup that was previously saved:

printwall1slctsetup.gif

Use a new Print Setup

To create a new print set up, leave the default selection on Use a New Print Setup and click Next.

The default settings will display in the following seven dialogs. You can adjust them to print the chart exactly how you want it. Once you have made these settings, you can save the setting profile as a Setup for use later.

Use a Saved Print Setup

If you have already created and saved a print Setup profile, it will be available for selection from the drop-down list.

When a saved print Setup profile is selected, its settings will be inserted into the wizard.

These settings can be accepted for the current chart, or alterations made to suite the price range, security type, etc. of the new security.

Click Next to continue

Select Printer

Integrated Investor uses the default Windows® settings for printers.

The current printer set as default will appear in the printer text box.

You can select another printer that is available on your system from the drop-down menu.

The Printer Setup button will open the standard Windows® Print Setup dialog box for the selected printer.

Add or delete printers from the drop down menu using the Printers and Faxes function of the Windows® operating system's Control Panel.

Print Color Options

Two print options are available for black and white printers:

Different Shades of Gray

By default the charts will be printed in Different Shades of Gray.

Different colors will be assigned a different shade of gray

Black and White Only

For a slightly different result, select Black and White Only. This will produce the greatest contrast.

Color

If a printer supports color printing, in addition to the two black and white styles, the chart can also be printed in color.

Select Paper

Your printer's default settings will normally populate this dialog. You can change the default paper settings from this dialog:

Paper Type

Select the type of paper you are using to print charts. You can select Single Page if you are printing on a bin fed printer or Tractor if you are printing data using paper fed continuously through a tractor-feed printer.

Orientation

Choose the way to print the chart on paper. A graphic icon within the wizard will indicate how this will be printed.

Portrait is printed with the shorter edge of the paper at the bottom, i.e. with the dates for the chart printed along the shorter edge.

Landscape is printed with the date axis for the chart printed along the longer edge at the bottom.

Paper Size

Select the size of paper that you are currently using. The current Windows® regional settings will determine the default size displayed.

If you use paper of a different size it can be selected from the drop down box or select Custom at the end of this list to nominate the exact size of your paper.

Select Date Range

In the Date Range dialog a small version of current chart data will be displayed.

Select the Start Date and End Date of the wall chart you wish to print:

printwall2slctdate.gif

The dates can be edited by typing over the dates currently in each text field. Alternatively, use the drop-down Calendar Selector Tool to select a date.

The Start Date will be indicated by a green vertical dashed line, the End Date will be indicated by a red vertical dashed line.

Scaling

Scaling allows you to adjust the scale or size of the charts, this will affect the number of pages required to print the entire wall chart.

The correct settings will vary according to the high and low values of the security, date range and the size of the chart to be printed as well as whether the chart is to be a traditional "square" chart (i.e. 8 bars per inch X 8 points per inch) or an elongated chart used primarily for display:

printwall3setscale.gif

Bars per cm/inch

Select the number of bars per unit of measurement on the x-axis or time axis.

The following multiples are available from the drop-down menu: 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, or 64

The scale measurement can be either centimeters (cm) or inches (Inch). This measure will always be the same as the setting in the Fit X Points to Every... setting, see below.

The default setting is 8 Bars per Inch.

Top of Chart

By default the high in the Date Range selected, see above, will populate the Top of Chart text field.

You may want to adjust this a few points higher to ensure extra room at the top border.

Fit X Points into every ...

Select the number of points on the pricing scale per unit of measurement.

Select the unit of measurement from Inch or cm (Centimeters).

Where every point is equal to

Select the price value of a point on the price scale of the chart.

Number of Decimals To Display

Adjust the number of decimal places displayed on the price scale. For example, a price of $2 would be displayed to 2 decimal places as 2.00.

Bottom of Chart

By default the high in the Date Range selected, see above, will populate the Bottom of Chart text field.

You may want to adjust this a few points higher to ensure extra room at the lower border.

Note - This dialog may be one of the more difficult to set.

At the completion of the Wizard, the number of pages for the wall chart will be calculated and displayed.

printwallpreviosbutn.gifAt that point the Previous button can be used to return to this stage of the Wizard in order to make adjustments necessary to reduce the number of pages in the Wall Chart.

Grids

Display Style

Select the Grid Style you wish to use for your chart from None, Light, Medium or Dark.

Display Intervals

The type of interval is set in the previous Wizard Step, it can be either inches or centimeters.

Show Major Unit every X Inch(es) / cm(s)

Select the frequency of major units and grid intervals displayed on the price scale.

Show X Minor units for every Major Unit

Select the number of minor units, breaking down each major unit.

Series Labels

Series Labels always contain a security description and chart interval and type, e.g. Intl Business Machines - Daily Bar Chart.

When Indicators and Hi-Lites are added to the chart, a line will be added to the label describing each.

The default is to Print on all pages.

If the chart contains complex drawing tool output, or a number of Indicators or Hi-Lites, they can be removed from each printed page except the top right hand page by selecting Print on one page only.

Page Layout and Overlap

An overlap of points, along the bottom of each printed sheet, and overlap of bars, along the right edge of each sheet, is very useful when you paste or tape the wall chart together after printing it out.

Overlapping allows the edges of contiguous chart pages to be readily identified and aligned.

Overlap Points

Select the number of points that are overlapped when printing a chart for the Y-axis or price axis. This will allow the right and left edges of each printed page to be more easily aligned.

The default Number of Points is the same as the amount previously set in the Fit X points into every inch/cm specification in the Scaling step of this wizard. The width of the overlap can be independently set in this text box.

Overlap Bars

Select to have a number of bars repeated at the beginning and end of each page printed for the X or time axis on the bottom of each page. This will allow the top and bottom edges of each printed page to be more easily aligned.

The default Number of Bars is the same as the amount previously set in the Fit X points into every inch/cm specification in the Scaling step of this wizard. The width of the overlap can be independently set in this text box.

Complete

The print wizard's final dialog will calculate the number of pages that will be printed and advise how many pages high and wide the resulting wall chart will be:

printwallpagenumtoprint.gif

printwallpreviosbutn.gifIf you are not satisfied with the settings, you can click Previous and go back through the wizards dialog boxes and make the alterations required to achieve an optimal size.

Once satisfied with the dimensions and size, click the Finish button to print the chart.

Assembling the Wall Chart

Each page of the Wall Chart will have details of when it was printed, together with the individual page's location in the overall wall chart.

These details are located at the bottom left corner of each printed page:

printwallpageinfo.gif

The sequence of printing is row-by-row beginning at the bottom left corner of the wall chart. The numbering then proceeds along the bottom row to the right:

printwallpageprintorder.gif

The numbering then returns to the start of the next row (Row 2) and again proceeds along the bottom row to the right until it returns to the start of the next row above it.

Saving your Print Setup Profile

After commencing the print, the wizard will query if you wish to save the current settings for later use:

printwallsavesetup.gif

If you want to use them again, click Yes and give your settings profile a recognizable name:

printwallsetupname.gif

Click OK and the settings will appear in Saved Print Setup drop down menu on the first wizard dialog.

Using Print Setups

Once named and saved, the Print Setups are available from the Use a Saved Print Setup drop down menu in the first step in the Print Wall Chart Wizard, see above.

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