If you use the Source window to edit your Production Reporting code based on the Production Reporting layout, the position parameters in the generated Production Reporting program depend on where you placed objects in the layout and whether the layout is in Character Mode or Graphic Mode.
In Character Mode, the position parameters are in lines and characters.
In Graphic Mode, or in Production Reporting programs for Windows, HP, or PostScript printers, the position parameters are in points. Using points achieves a very fine placement of objects and accommodates lines of different widths.
The position parameters in Graphic Mode indicate the vertical position in points, the horizontal position in points, and the object width in characters.
Note that 1 point = 1/72 inch. Therefore, if two objects on the page are one inch apart, this corresponds to 72 points.
To illustrate how Production Reporting positions objects using points, consider the following layout and the corresponding Production Reporting program. This layout contains two columns: name and city. The name column is 20 characters wide and the city column is 16 characters wide. They are positioned in the layout as follows:
The part of the Production Reporting program that corresponds to this layout appears below:
In this program, FONT=5 indicates Times Roman. POINT-SIZE=12 indicates 12-point font.
Both the name and city columns have a vertical position of 12 because they are on the same line. The “12” represents the vertical position from the base of the font.
The second position parameter for name is 1. This indicates that the column is 1 point from the left margin. The second position parameter for city is 145. This indicates that it is 145 points from the left margin and 144 points (2 inches) from the left edge of the name column.
The third position parameter for name is 20, indicating that it is 20 characters wide. The third position parameter for city is 16, indicating that it is 16 characters wide.