| Control Reference > VSPrinter Control > VSPrinter Methods > StartOverlay Method |
Reopens an existing preview page for additional output.
[form!]VSPrinter.StartOverlay Page As Integer, [ Preserve As Variant ]
The StartOverlay and EndOverlay methods allow you to add elements to a document after it has been created in preview mode.
The parameters for the StartOverlay method are described below:
|
Parameter |
Description |
|
Page |
Page in existing preview document to which you want to add text or graphical elements. |
|
Preserve |
Boolean value that specifies whether previous overlay contents should be preserved or deleted. This parameter is optional and defaults to False, which causes previous contents to be deleted. |
The overlay mechanism allows you to create templates with blank fields, save them to disk, load and fill them out later. It also allows you to avoid lengthy two-pass operations. With the StartOverlay and EndOverlay methods, you can create the document, save information you need (such as page numbers, counts, and subtotals), then go back and place the information in the appropriate places.
Each page in the document may have a single overlay page, which you may add to or replace when you call StartOverlay. To create the overlay page, issue the StartOverlay method with the desired page as a parameter, then add all text and graphics elements that you want, and finalize the overlay by calling the EndOverlay method.
By setting the Preserve parameter to True, you can create overlays in several passes, adding extra information on each pass.
See also the Page n of m example.