Adding a logo to your receipts

One of the new features that was added back in version 4.0 was the ability to add graphics to the receipts and other forms, so company logos can be used.  However this is probably not utilized by many people because it's an Advanced Customization.  While there is some technical savvy required to do this, here are the basic steps involved that may be sufficient for you to do it.

Of course this isn't limited to just company logos.  You can add any graphic you want -- associate membership medallions, official seals, a photo or small map of your campground, decorative graphics, "form stamps" with boxes for them to enter their information, etc -- anything that can be a digitized image.

First of all, the logo needs to be in a BMP format.  It can be either black and white or in color, but the file format should be 256-color BMP, with RGB encoding.  More details on how to get an image in this format can be found in the documentation for Bitmap Element Fields (e.g. in the Help Topics under Maintenance / Advanced Customizations / Forms / Editing Form Elements), or you can access that topic online here:

http://campgroundmaster.com/help/editingformelements.html

Ideally the logo image should be created as the correct size, in pixels, to result in the right size image on your printer.  This can take a fair amount of experimenting though, and isn't essential because it can be stretched or shrunk to the right size in the form definition -- it's just a matter of whether the resulting logo looks good enough.

Now to get the logo on your receipts, there is an easy way and a hard way:

The easy way will work if it can fit on the receipt without moving any of the existing text (e.g. company name & address, etc.).  This involves just adding an element to the "canned" form definitions to put the logo on top of the current form.

The hard way is required if you need to move (or remove) some of the existing text in order to put the logo where you want it.

The Easy Way:

Here are the basic steps for the easy way:

1. Go to Maintenance / Advanced Customizations / Forms

2. Select the desired receipt format or form (confirmation letter, etc.) that you want to modify, and click Edit Form definition.

3. Click Add Element.

4. Select "Bitmap" for the Element Type.  Note: If Bitmap isn't an option, then this is a form with a format of "Character positions", such as for a 3" receipt printer or E-mail.  graphics cannot be added to these types of forms.

5. Configure the Top and Left to be "Absolute (in region)", and enter the desired positions for the top left of the bitmap image.

6. There are different options for the Bottom and Right, as described in the documentation, but the most common is to select "Relative" and enter 0 for Bottom, which will make it keep the correct aspect ratio, and select "Absolute" for the Right position with the desired location of the right side of the logo.  For instance if you want it 3 inches wide and the Left position was 2 inches, then make the Right position 5 inches.  This will force it to be 3 inches wide, and adjust the height as needed to keep it in the correct aspect ratio.

7. Select the logo file using the Browse for file button.

8. Click Save to save the element.

Now you can use Save & Test form to see how it looks, and go back to make adjustments as needed.

The Hard Way:

If you need to do it the hard way, then you will first need to import the sample form that imitates the receipt format you want to modify.  For details, see the documentation on the following page, under "Making other changes to the default formats -- Importing and changing templates ":

http://campgroundmaster.com/help/formssetup.html

Once you have the sample imported (which will add form definitions to the list such as "Custom full-page receipt"), select the appropriate custom form and edit it to move things around.  We can't go into details of editing the form here because there are a lot of different possibilities, but basically you need to be familiar with forms editing and adjust the positions of regions and/or other elements as needed.  If this isn't something you have time to learn, then contact us for a quote on customizing the form for you.

Once you have things moved around to make room for the logo, then follow the same procedures as detailed in the easy way above to add the logo element.

This can be a challenge but we hope you have fun with it.  We would love to see the results -- send us a FAX or screen shots of your receipts with logos on them!