SET MARGIN

Topic group Related topics Example

Sets the width of the left border of a printed page.

Syntax

SET MARGIN TO <expN>

<expN>

The column number at which to set the left margin. The valid range is 0 to 254, inclusive. You can specify a fractional number for <expN> to position output accurately with a proportional font.

Default

The default for SET MARGIN is 0. To change the default, set the MARGIN parameter in PLUS.ini.

Description

Use SET MARGIN to adjust the printer offset for the left margin for all printed output. The margin established by SET MARGIN becomes the printer's column 0 position. set margin resets the value of the _ploffset system memory variable but doesn't affect the value of the _lmargin system memory variable.

Use SET MARGIN to adjust the position of text on the printed page according to the type of paper. For example, if you're printing to three-hole paper, you might need to increase the left border. You can also use SET MARGIN to compensate for the placement of paper in the printer. For example, if the paper is off-center in the printer, you can adjust the width of the left border to properly place the text.

When you direct output to the printer, dBASE Plus maps each character according to the coordinate plane, a two-dimensional grid. The coordinate plane is divided into character cells whose widths depend on the value of _ppitch. See the table in the description of _ppitch, which lists _ppitch values. The height of each character cell is determined by the size of the font.

If you change the value of SET MARGIN, dBASE Plus takes the current value of _ppitch into consideration when calculating the cell width of the coordinate plane. This happens regardless of whether you're printing with proportional or monospaced fonts.