Chapter 1: SAPscript Forms: The Big Picture 1

Contents In this chapter you will get

a conceptual overview of:
 What SAPscript forms
Overview................................................................................................................. 1–2 are
What Are SAPscript Forms?.................................................................................1–2  How they are built

What Is the Architecture of a SAPscript Form?..................................................1–3  How they are

processed
How Are SAPscript Forms Processed?...............................................................1–4
Also a brief introduction to
Form Management Tools......................................................................................1–5 form management tools is
provided.

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Chapter 1: SAPscript Forms: The Big Picture
Overview

Overview

This chapter provides a general understanding of SAPscript forms and tools, and
addresses the following questions:
 What are SAPscript forms?
 What is the architecture of a SAPscript form?
 How are SAPscript forms processed?
 What are the tools?

What Are SAPscript Forms?

A SAPscript form is an R/3 template that consists of layout and content

information.
A specific SAPscript form is assigned to each form (needed when dealing with
your business partners). SAPscript forms are used by the R/3 system to print the
forms, distribute them via several channels such as E-mail or fax, or display
them on screen.

Examples of SAPscript Forms

Examples of SAPscript forms:

 Sales Order Confirmation
 Invoices
 Purchase Order
 Production Planning Output
 Production Planning Kanban Card
 Checks
 Accounting Statements
 Packing List
 Picking List
For more information about U.S. and
Canadian-specific SAPscript forms, see
Chapter 3.

Examples of forms generated with

SAPscript.

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Form Management Tools

Did you know that SAPscript forms are not:

 Reports
For more information about reports and reporting tools, see the Reporting
Made Easy Guidebooks Vols. 1 – 3.
 SAPforms—used within SAP workflow processes.
(Take care that you do not confuse SAPscript forms and SAPforms.)
 Hardcopies of a screenshot

What Is the Architecture of a SAPscript Form?

Each SAPscript form consists of layout and content. The layout is determined
by a set of windows in which the content appears. The content is either text
(for example, business data for an invoice) or pictures (for example, a company
logo).
The illustration below shows an invoice form created with a standard SAPscript
form. You can see several windows as well as the content of one window.

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Overview

The central object in a SAPscript form

is the window. You can define the
size and positioning as well as the
content of each window. The set of all
windows presents the form of a
SAPscript form.
For more information, refer to form
components in chapter 3.

How Are SAPscript Forms Processed?

Process Description
The SAPscript runtime environment retrieves layout and content data from the
form, collects the necessary business data from the R/3 data base, and
generates the final SAPscript form. The generated SAPscript form can be used
for printing, e-mailing, faxing, or displaying on screen.

Illustration of the SAPscript Process

The illustration below shows the SAPscript runtime environment process.

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Form Management Tools

Form Management Tools

Managing forms requires two different general tasks: layout management and
content management. In SAPscript use the Form Painter to manage layout and
the PC Editor to manage content.

Form Painter
Using the Form Painter you can manage the page layout of SAPscript forms by
modifying form components. The Form Painter consists of two synchronized
screens: the Administrative Screen and the Design Window.

The illustration shows you both

synchronized screens of the
graphical Form Painter. B

A Administrative Screen


B Design Window
 A

The design window only

appears if you want to display or
change the page layout.

For more information about form components, see Chapter 3: SAPscript Basics.
For more information about modifying forms, see Chapter 4: Starting with Form
Modifications.

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PC Editor
You can modify the content of SAPscript forms using the PC Editor to manipulate
text or SAPscript command controls. You can access the PC Editor in one of two
ways: To simultaneously modify layout out and content, SAP recommends option
1. To modify content only, use option 2.
Option 1: Access From Form Painter

To start the PC Editor directly from

the administrative screen in Form
Painter:
1. Choose Text.

In the administrative screen the PC

Editor shows the content of the
activated window.
The benefit of using this option is
that you do not have to know the
technical name of the text object
you want to edit.

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Option 2: Access Without Form Painter

If you only want to change text you can start the PC Editor directly without using
Form Painter via Standard text. This is quicker than access via Form Painter, but
you have to know the technical name of the text object you want to edit.

Step-by-Step Guide
Task Open the PC Editor using Standard text.

1. From the SAP main menu,

choose Tools  Word processing
 Standard text.
3
The Standard Text: Request
screen appears.
2. Choose the text object by
2
specifying Text name, Text ID
and Language.
3. Choose Create/Change.
The PC Editor screen appears
for the chosen text object.

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