When planning the design of your new form, you have the option of either extracting information from existing print line data or writing a program to deliver records.

Print Line mode caters for existing applications where minimal change is required. This mode may not be suitable for sophisticated conversions and you should carefully check a number of existing printouts to ensure what you require is possible in this mode.

Here are some questions you should consider to determine whether or not you can produce an output from an existing print program:

• Are page headings, detail sections and footers consistent?
• Compare first and subsequent page headings. Do they start on the same line down from the top of the page?
• Are headings consistent on a multi-page document?
• Does the document have a "footer" section? If so, is it consistent? If not, are there items that can be used to test the footer section?
• Does the document have repeating detail lines?
• Does the first detail line on each page start on the same line?
• Is pagination consistent?
• Are there different types of detail lines? Do they have distinguishing features or literals or the absence of data that can be used for tests to separate different line types?

Print Line mode excels when working with consistent documents. If your application output is generally consistent, designing forms with Print Line mode is greatly simplified. Where inconsistencies occur, FormTrap needs to perform tests to ensure the correct information is printed at the correct place on the form.

Records mode is ideal for new applications and where your new requirements cannot be supported from the existing print lines. In this mode, the data required is written as records, with the first character of each record identifying the page element.

The different design concepts used in Print Line mode and Records mode will be explained in the Design Modes section.