To use forms efficiently, it is essential that you understand the interdependencies between the individual components of SAPscript.

SAPscript comprises these five components:

• an editor for entering and editing the lines of a text. The application transactions automatically call this editor if the user decides to maintain texts that concern an application object.

• styles and forms for print layout. These are created independent of the individual texts using the corresponding maintenance transactions and are allocated to the texts later.

• the composer as central output module. Its task is to prepare a text for a certain output device by including the corresponding formatting information. This information comes from the style and form allocated to the text. The SAPscript composer is invisible on the outside.

• a programming interface that allows you to include SAPscript components into your own application programs and to control the output of forms from within the programs.

• several database tables for storing texts, styles and forms.

In short, form maintenance means to allocate to a text document a form that contains the information on how to layout the text (formats, fonts, layout, and so on). The print program retrieves the required data from the form and from the database and controls the output. You use certain function modules to activate the SAPscript composer, which is responsible for processing the form.

Not every user of the SAP system works with every component of SAPscript. Depending on the task, a user is confronted with different components.

• Accounting clerks create texts concerning materials, orders, customers, vendors, and so on. They usually know only the SAPscript editor.

• Another user may be responsible for the print layout and will use the transactions for maintaining styles and forms.

• A developer who integrates SAPscript into his own applications or who wants to create print output using forms, sees SAPscript from the programming interface view point.

This documentation explains the basic principles of printing texts using forms. It describes in detail the interaction of form and print program and offers examples for better understanding.

Building on this basic knowledge, the documentation then describes the programming interface which allows you to integrate the word processing functionality offered by SAPscript into ABAP programs. This interface is a collection of ABAP function modules, different data structures, and control tables.