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Procedure documentation Displaying a Background Picture for Copy Purposes  Locate the document in its SAP Library structure

Use

In your business procedures, you may often want to use existing forms as patterns for creating new ones. You can easily do this by scanning the exising form into the computer, displaying it as background picture, and copying it over. In the Form Painter, you can use windows to copy over the output areas of a form; in the Table Painter, you can use cells to copy over templates. This section describes how to do it.

Prerequisites

You must import any graphics into the SAP System using Administering Form Graphics (transaction SE78 ):

  1. Double-click a graphic format in the tree structure in the folder Document Server ® GRAPHICS ® General graphics.
  2. Choose Graphic ® Import.

The transaction imports the graphic and stores it on the Business Document Server (BDS). Now you can display it in a form.

Note

See also: Graphic Administration.

Procedure

  1. Insert your graphic as background picture of a page (see: Creating Pages). The graphic appears in the Form Painter as soon as you update your entries by pressing ENTER .
  2. Use the Form Painter to overlay the graphic with a window. To make this easier, select the option Transparent Window on the General tab of the Form Builder settings (This graphic is explained in the accompanying text).
  3. Create a template in this window. To position the template, set the Vertical Alignment to Absolute (from top). You find this option on the Template tab in the Details view.

    4. Note

    Without this setting, SAP Smart Forms cannot display a background picture in the Table Painter, because then the vertical position of the template in the window depends on previous, possibly dynamic, output.

    Caution

    If you encounter problems when trying to set the vertical alignment, save your Smart Form, exit SAP Smart Forms completely, and call the form again. See also Note 375087 in the SAPNet.

  4. When you switch to the Table Painter after making these settings, an additional checkbox Display Background Picture appears. Mark this checkbox.

Result

The background graphic appears in the Table Painter. The right and left margins in the Table Painter, as usual, correspond to the right and left window borders. Copy over the lines of the pattern. To draw lines more exact, deactivate the Align With Grid attribute in the Table Painter.

Recommendation

With complex patterns, divide the page into several windows. This makes it easier to copy over the individual smaller patterns.