CoolSpools Converter

CoolSpools Spool Converter doesn’t just convert your spooled files, it helps you create and manage the business documents you really need by providing highly flexible but easy to use functions that address real business issues, such as:

AS400 spool file splitting
Split spooled files into multiple documents without the need to change your applications. For example, if your spooled file is a batch of documents (invoices, statements etc.), you can tell CoolSpools Spool Converter to create a new PDF every time the invoice number or customer number changes etc. You can even tell it to email each separate PDF to a different email address or address. Or maybe you want to convert your sales report to Excel format, but need to put each region’s section o the report into a different server directory. No problem: just tell CoolSpools Spool Converter where to find the region code/name on the report and it will create a new spreadsheet every time it changes and store it in a directory name based on the region. Learn more about Splitting/bursting spooled files.

Merging/combining PDFs and Excel files from AS400
Maybe you’d like to create a report or document pack containing a set of related documents from different spooled files. With CoolSpools Spool Converter you can append to an existing PDF when converting a spooled file to PDF. You can also merge/combined several PDFs with the MRGPDF command. The PDFs do not have to be CoolSpools-generated PDFs: any PDF will do. CoolSpools Spools Converter can also append a new worksheet to an existing spreadsheet when converting a spooled file to Excel format. We know of no other IBM i product that can do this.

Dropping unwanted lines/pages
If there are certain pages or lines in your spooled file you don’ want to include in the output (PDF, Excel etc.), there are several ways to tell CoolSpools what to drop, e.g.by page number, pages at the start, pages at the end, lines or page containing certain text etc. Learn more about dropping unwanted pages from AS400 spools

Controlling file names and output paths
Often, you’ll want to give your files a meaningful name, for example including something like the invoice number or order number from inside the document in the name. CoolSpools Spool Converter has some really flexible and powerful features to help with this. You can use some attribute or combination of attributes of the spooled file, or you can extract data (e.g. invoice number, customer name etc.) from inside the spooled file and use it.  Learn more about how to give your AS400 output files meaningful names.

Selecting email recipients
Often you’ll want to email different spooled files or parts of spooled files to different people. CoolSpools Spool Converter has some great features to handle this. Which way is best for you depends on a number of things like where your email addresses are stored and what information there is in the spooled file to identify who the output is intended for. Whatever your needs, we’re confident we have an option that suits you. Learn more about CoolSpools and email addresses.

Include images (background forms, logos etc.) without the need for overlays
If your spooled file is normally printed on preprinted stationery and you want to include that form as a background to your PDF, no problem, CoolSpools Spool Converter makes that a breeze!

Alternatively, if you’d like to improve your documents with logos, watermarks or other graphics, that too is easy to do with CoolSpools Spool Converter. All you need is one or more JPEG or GIF images of the graphics or form you want to include. Just tell CoolSpools to build them into your PDF when it converts your spooled file. There’s no need to buy additional software or mess around creating page overlay objects or modifying your print application. Learn more about including images in PDF reports on AS400 / IBM i.

Security
When you create a PDF you can password-protect and encrypt it so only authorized people can open it. You can also restrict what can be done to the PDF, e.g. preventing it from being modified, printed etc. (with or without a password)You can also add digital signatures to authenticate PDFs as genuine and to guarantee they have not been tampered with since they were created. Learn more about password encryption for PDF files from AS400 / IBM i.

AS400 and PDF Standards
CoolSpools Spool Converter can optionally produce PDFs that conform to the ISO 19005 PDF/A document archiving standard. Both Level 1A and Level 1B of the PDF/A standard are supported. Learn more about CoolSpools and PDF/A standards.

Exit Programs
CoolSpools Spool Converter implements several exit points allowing user-written exit programs to control aspects of its running and do things like override parameters at run time to determine file naming, output paths, passwords, email addresses etc. This puts you in total control of what CoolSpools does. Learn more about how CoolSpools can call an exit program on AS400 / IBM i.

Bookmarks/PDF Outlines
When converting a spooled file to PDF, CoolSpools Spool Converter can generate a set of bookmarks from the content of the document to produce an index or set of outlines, making it easy for users to navigate around large documents. For example, if you have a sales report organized by the branch within the region, you could produce a two-level index by region name and branch name within the region. You users can then go straight to the right page for a region or branch just by clicking on the name in the index.

Excel format reports from AS400
Give your users their reports in the format they want them in by converting spooled files to Excel spreadsheets. Jazz up your reports by adding styles: colour, fonts, shading, borders etc. are all supported. Add conditional formatting, e.g. color high values red and low values green automatically!

XML output from AS400
Generate XML documents from your spooled file so they can be imported into applications – and save time re-programming applications.