About Print Templates and MaxiPT

In Internet Explorer 5.5 Microsoft re-wrote the browser's underlying printing architecture and introduced Print Templates. Built using scripted HTML and four job-specific element behaviors, Print Templates are designed to provide enhanced control over print & print preview behaviour, and over page layout for printing & previewing.

Why custom Print Templates?

In his excellent introduction to IE 5.5+ print customization, Microsoft's Chuck Ainslie says this:

" The new print customization possibilities add a new layer of possibilities to Internet Explorer as a platform for application development. By creating a print template, you can control:

The layout of pages when printed/previewed, and the content that is printed/previewed on them.
How print jobs are handled—for instance, which pages are printed in what order.
The look of the Print Preview window and controls available on the print preview user interface.

Because you now have extensive layout and handling control over printing, Internet Explorer can fit many new application scenarios, such as:

Adding boilerplate text to print jobs, including company logos, legal notices, and advertisements.
Customized placement and styling for header and footer elements, such as page numbers or chapter headings.
Customized printing for scheduling or appointment applications, which gives the user different layout or binding options.
Multi-fold brochure printing.
Book-style printing using mirrored margins for the odd and even pages.

For those thinking about writing their own custom Print Templates, Chuck's series of articles is an excellent place to start. [top]

Print Templates, Security and ScriptX

Security considerations - in web-technology terms the template pane is a 'trusted' element - mean that custom Print Templates cannot by default be assigned and deployed freely for use in the IE browser over the Internet or intranet. Browsers from IE 5.5 and later are themselves shipped with a single default Print Template.

However by virtue of ScriptX' inherently secure licensing schema, it is uniquely possible for ScriptX licensees to deploy custom Print Templates easily and in complete security. The ScriptX templateUrl property specifies the URL of a custom Print Template for use in IE 5.5+ whilst MeadCo's Security Manager controls the permission to run templates from the URL addresses bound to a client-side publishing license. [top]

Deploying your own custom Print Template

ScriptX installs two default Print Templates of its own which are based on the versions provided with IE5.5 & IE6.x, and with IE7. These are made available on the client PC as resources from within MCMaxiPT.dll.

You can deploy your own Print Templates as part of the licensed use of ScriptX, but you will need to insert a TriPrint <object> into the <head> section of the template source thus:

<HTML XMLNS:IE>
<HEAD>
<?IMPORT namespace="ie" implementation="#default">

<!-- <TriPrint> (c) 2000 - 2008 by Mead & Co Limited <feedback@meadroid.com> -->
<object classid="clsid:1663ed6a-23eb-11d2-b92f-008048fdd814" viewastext>
  <param name="__PX__template" value="true">
</object>
<!-- </TriPrint> -->

<TITLE>Print Preview</TITLE>

MeadCo's MaxiPT custom Print Template

MeadCo's MaxiPT provides printing capabilities that are significantly more flexible and powerful than Internet Explorer's standard offering. Currently MaxiPT functionality is grouped into two Feature Sets, either or both of which can be ordered for use as an optional part of a ScriptX client-side publishing license.

Feature Set #1 provides printing capabilities that are much more rich and customizable than those provided with Internet Explorer 5.5+ and are in fact much closer to Office. These include:

Multiline HTML headers and footers
Header & footer first page different
Additional footer for the first page
Height of header and footer
Page Range
Mirror Margins
Printing Range

Feature Set #2 provides a collection of specific printing capabilities that have been requested by ScriptX licensees. These are:

Optimal Layout of the document
Preview Active Frame
Page Scaling for previewing and printing

A detailed description of MaxiPT, together with functional examples of both Feature Sets, can be found here. [top]