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Invoice Template issues

Marc Elias

December 08, 2016 00:09

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Hello... I began with Studiometry on the Mac (user since around Version 11), and had set up my invoice templates after much trial and error, getting them to a point where they were attractive and usable.

I have had to add a Windows machine to my stable and thus am trying out Studiometry Cloud to see how the cross-platform features will work for me.

I managed to get all my data synchronized, but while my Invoice Templates are listed in the Preferences, and all my fields are there (I will wrestle with the font issues later), my PDF backdrops are not showing.

Not to worry, I have them, so I can relink them, right?

Not so much... I can choose new PDF backdrops for each page but they do not appear at all, either in the preview or the invoice template builder.

Any ideas on how to resolve this situation? Otherwise I suppose I will have to continue using my Mac to generate the invoices.

Thank you!

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8 comments

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  Oranged Support December 08, 2016 01:02

  Hi Marc, PDF backdrops cannot be previews on Windows, but they still should work fine when you use the Export button to export the invoice/report to a PDF. This is due to a limitation on Windows of the PDF plugins.

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  Marc Elias December 08, 2016 01:27

  Thanks for your reply! It does not even kiss the underside of working, I'm afraid. Besides the font issues, the exported PDF gives me errors and doesn't display anything. Perhaps allow people to add JPEG backdrops as well to avoid font mismatches?

  As long as it works on the Mac I'll live with it but the cumbersome invoice template creation is by far the least intuitive and useful part of an otherwise absolutely outstanding product that has enabled my small business.

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  Oranged Support December 08, 2016 03:18

  Hi Marc,

  Thanks for the feedback and sorry for the trouble. You can definitely add an image as your backdrop by simply dragging and dropping it into the template editor and then moving it to the back using the controls on the right under Position > Z Order. If you want a higher res image, you can simply drag and drop a larger image and then scale it down by entering different numbers into the size field or holding shift while resizing it to keep the same proportions.

  We'll look into the PDF issues and see what we can find out. Thank you!

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  Marc Elias January 01, 2017 20:28

  Thanks for your reply. I have had no luck with invoice templates on Windows yet (really interesting problems happening there but let's pick our battles), but now I'm having issues on the Mac side as well, all of a sudden... Two problems in fact:

  1) If I create an invoice in Studiometry and "Export" it to a PDF using the icon in the top right of the window, the export works, and everything is aligned, but all of a sudden the font is wrong (in this example, bold instead of regular):

  

  Here is a screenshot of how the template looks in Studiometry, and how it used to export before I switched to Studiometry Cloud:

  
  If I try to export the PDF any other way (i.e., "Save to PDF" or "Print as Adobe PDF" through the print dialog), Studiometry crashes instantly, and the resulting saved PDF has the wrong fonts and is misaligned like this:

  

  2) If you look closely at that list, you'll see that for some reason, the dates are not sequential! Is that because I retroactively added the work done on December 13th after the work on December 14th? If so, how can this be resolved in the template?

  Thanks for any help!

  Edited by Marc Elias January 01, 2017 20:29
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  Rob Sherrard - Imageer January 07, 2017 01:51

  I can't comment on MAC behavior for PDF export, but you can modify the date order by clicking on Date in the title bar of Invoiced Items in the Edit Invoice Window.. Any of the items can be sorted in alphanumeric order by clicking on the column header you want to alter. Alternatively, you can drag any row in Invoiced Items to a new  row location. Changes made here will reflect in the Invoice view or print.

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  Oranged Support January 10, 2017 02:25

  Marc: For the fonts, you might want to go to the Preferences Window > Billing Settings > Advanced Billing Settings section and then turn on Safe Match Fonts when Exporting to PDF.

  Regarding #2, Rob is correct that you can rearrange the items or sort however you'd like in the invoice editing window.

  Regarding the crashing when attempting to save the PDF, what version of Studiometry are you running and what Operating system?

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  Marc Elias January 26, 2017 20:00

  Hello again!

  Checking or unchecking the "Safe Match Fonts" box does not solve the issue, unfortunately...

  If the PDF is "Exported" from the top right of the window, the fonts are aligned but are improperly bolded, as pictured above.

  If the PDF is "Saved as Adobe PDF" or just saved as PDF from the print dialog, then the fonts are correct but the positioning is completely off, as pictured above. The crash no longer happens on the latest revision of MacOS.

  If the "Safe Match Fonts" button is turned OFF, the PDF is exported with no text at all.

  I'm guessing my options at this point are to live with the improperly bolded fonts, or to change the design of my invoice to use less complicated font choices.

  That's a shame because it used to work just fine before Studiometry Cloud, Oh well.

  Thanks for your help!

  Edited by Marc Elias January 26, 2017 20:01
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  Marc Elias March 20, 2017 16:26

  Update on the above:

  FONT ISSUE: I fixed this on the Mac side by re-choosing all my fonts and it seems to be working now.

  WINDOWS INVOICES: This is still a mess, I'm afraid, and I'm not sure where to go from here. Any graphic backdrop I use gives me error after error, and the generated PDF contains no background at all and pixelated fonts. I'm scared to rebuild my invoice template entirely in Studiometry because with the interface involved it will take forever and might not work in the end.

  Perhaps if you could add the ability to zoom into invoice templates so that we can make sure things are aligned?

  I'll keep digging. Studiometry Cloud working well otherwise so far, cross-platform. Everything seems to line up except the invoice generation thing.

  Thanks!
  M.E.