Tips for Printing from AX and Closing AX

 

Ever need to print an attached document from AX.  Here are a few tips that you may not be aware of.   In previous Techbits we have discussed the Document Handling screen for attaching and viewing attached documents.   Now, let’s talk about printing or saving these documents when you need a physical copy to fax or, a copy of the file to email to someone.  First, we will talk about printing to a physical printer.

In the Document Handling screen, you can check the Show File checkbox and the document will be viewable inside the document handling screen.  If you hover your mouse over the document, you will notice a black bar with icons in it.  Here you will click the printer icon 🖨.  

 

This will open the Print window where you can choose the printer you want to print to from the dropdown menu. 

 

 

Let’s say you need to email this document to your manager.   You could scan the copy you just printed or, you can simply save the file to your computer right from AX.   Again, using the same steps as above, you will choose Microsoft Print to PDF as the printer then, click print

This will open the Save Print Output As window.  Here you will choose where you want to save the document on your local machine, name the file then click save.  This will save the file to your local machine in the file format it is in AX i.e. pdf, xlsx or docx.  You now have the file on your local machine, all done right from AX.

 

 

 

 

Closing AX at the End of the Day When you are Finished

 

Here are a few tips that will help everyone when you are finished Tele-Working for the day.

  1. When you are finished working in AX for the day and, don’t plan on using it or other resources i.e. files on the file server any more until the next day, you should close AX.  If you don’t close AX this will keep your Remote Desktop Session open and continue to utilize resources on our servers while your session is idle.  When you close AX your RDS session does not logoff immediately, it changes state from Active to Disconnected.   Below you can see that user wbailey logged on at 4:41 pm, the session state is active but, has been Idle for 14 minutes.  

 

 

  1. Here you can see the same session is now Disconnected and the Idle Time has changed from 14 min to 3min.

 

 

When you close AX a couple of things happen that can help improve your next AX Tele-Work experience.

  • Your session changes State from Active to Disconnected.
  • If your session is in State Disconnected for less than 30 minutes and you log back into AX, your session startup time will be minimized because your RDS session is still idle.
  • If your session State is Disconnected for longer than 30 minutes, your RDS session will be logged off.  This will provide for a new RDS session the next time you login to AX.

 

 

 

Now let’s talk a little about the VPN connection.   The VPN connection is like having a real long network cable going from your computer (wherever it is), all the way back to the office where our servers are located.  We have many Nelson Brothers users Tele-Working via VPN almost every day.   Sometimes that’s like a busy street with lots of traffic going multiple directions at the same time.

 

 

 

Here are a few suggestions that can help regarding Nelson Brothers VPN traffic and improve the Tele-Work experience for everyone.

  • Try not to leave the VPN connected if you are not using AX or other Nelson Brothers resources i.e. files on our servers.  No need to clutter the “VPN Highway” with day-to-day web browsing, YouTube video streaming etc.
  • When you are finished Tele-Working for the day and have closed out of AX and other Nelson Brother resources, go ahead and close the VPN.  That’s kind of like pulling into your garage and parking your car.  This will help clear a little VPN traffic which will improve other users work experience while they are still Tele-Working and must use the VPN.

Think of it like this, closing AX and the VPN at the end of your Tele-Work day will provide a fresh, new connection when you begin you’re next Tele-Work session.  If we are diligent and all work toward implementing these tips, I believe the day-to-day Tele-Work experience for all our users will be much improved.  As always, if you have questions or need assistance please reach out to [email protected].