John,

Images in Memo fields actually need to be written out to temporary files in order to be used in a report with a file name that you temporarily create.

As far as doing charts within a Report, I think I have made it a lot easier to place them onto report pages and you get them in a preview and they are very quick. You do not need the separate Chart Control unless you were going to place charts directly onto a Form.

> Perhaps a couple questions:
> How much for both the chart control and report engine now and how long will the offer last ?
Right now the price for the Report Engine Professional Version has been discounted to US $495. Right now this price will last through February 28, 2003. I extended the discounted price because I had planned to have a few more features completed before now but they will be completed before March 1, 2003. Also, Doug Hennig has written a review of my Report Engine that will be published in the March 2003 FoxTalk. Doug is using the Report Engine in his soon to be released Stonefield Query tool. So starting March 1, it will officially be priced at US $695 for the Professional Version and US $295 for the Standard Version. The Chart Control will be priced at $149 by itself and $99 as a bundle with the Report Engine.

> Have you got the Save to PDF working properly yet ?
Anything that gets painted onto the Report Pages in the Report Engine gets painted to a PDF right now with the exception of the Chart Objects and the Barcode Objects. However, I plan to have those items fixed by next week if not sooner. It is just a matter of adding the code to place the objects into the PDF document.

> Will you be exporting to Word, Html and Xml as well as Pdf and how long until each.
I do plan on adding support to export to RTF and to XLS. I'm not sure how long to those items get implemented however, I am already doing studies as to what the requirements are. The problem with RTF, XLS, HTML etc is that you are not able to get a true WYSIWYG like you can with PDF. So there will be some limitations for very complex output. If you look at the output generated from FRX2WORD and several other tools into a DOC file, you will find that it's not really going to be editable like a regular letter or other word processing document because of the requirements to draw all kinds of shapes and objects to get the placement as close as possible. I can really see using RTF for simple documents but not really for anything with overlayed objects, etc. I don't have a definite time frame for the RTF and XLS but I am hoping before the end of Q2.

> What is your upgrade policy, costs etc ?
I will be using a subscription model for upgrades/support. I have not set an exact cost yet but it will be very reasonable.

> Are you credit card enabled ?
Yes, you can order online using the PayPal payment method that accepts credit cards. It works really well. F1 Technologies and Stonefield are using it too. All you have to do is click on the Purchase Now button on my website and follow the PayPal prompts. You can also call me with your CC as well. But that would be a little expensive from Australia. <bg>


> On my wish list:
> I like to have my client's email their invoices direct to their clients seamlessly. Would it be possible
> in the future to have a function to email the Pdf file using the Previewer properties for the
> recipient address, subject and message. This way they could complete an invoice and it be sent
> with the attachment automatically because I have programmed the infornation in at report time
> I already do this using the Mabry Mail control, so it would be no problem if it was not feasable.
> I do have a problem with programs using Mapi mail or Outlook simply because it often becomes a
> support issue on different clint's computers. Which is why I use Mabry mail, it makes me
> independant of outside issues.
> So I would not use a function like that if it was outside software dependant.

I already have added support for SendMail into the control using SMTP. There isn't any MAPI mail support built in at the moment. I still have to add the support for the attachments and when I do you will then be able to email your report as a PDF directly from calling a method on the control using SMTP. You can already test the SendMail() Method to see if it works for you. It just doesn't take an attachement at the moment. I will be adding some more parameters and Properties to manage the emailing.

> Sorry to be so long winded, and I hope I haven't upset you.
Not a problem. I'm very dedicated to making a great product and the best way to do that is to listen to your customers or potential customers. In fact, I have already made some minor tweaks today to improve the Group Footer placement on the page to more exactly match VFP Report placement. Feedback is always welcome and very important to delivering what the customer needs. Doug Hennig always teases me that most software companies don't do updates and releases daily or almost daily much less make multiple releases in a single day. <bg>