Tag Archives: IBM

Is This The Most Powerful Spool File Converter Yet? Convert Your AS/400 Spooled Files With CoolSpools

Posted on April 24, 2013at 9:45 am

If you work within an AS/400 environment, wouldn’t it be great if you could take your spooled files and use them to communicate information across multiple channels? Wouldn’t you like to convert spool to PDF, or convert spool to Excel, and have the output files perfectly formatted and ready to go?

IBM experts’ Ariadne’s CoolSpools software (www.ariadnesoftware.co.uk) can provide your users with the right information, at the right time, in the right format. This powerful spool file converter can convert spool to Excel, iSeries PDF, iSeries XML and many other popular file formats. It provides a simple, reliable way to take an AS/400 data extract and turn it into end-user friendly documents whenever and however you need it.

But CoolSpools is no mere spool file converter. It offers powerful functionality that puts it way ahead of other AS/400 spool conversion tools. Here’s how it can help you transform the way you share information…

Split your spooled files into several documents

If you’re converting spool to Excel, for example for financial reports, you might want to split your System i Excel output files by date, region or product. Or perhaps you’d like to output AS/400 to PDF, but split into several System iPDF files. CoolSpools can split your AS/400 data extract into multiple documents – and each can be emailed to different recipients.

Merge and combine files

Maybe you need to merge several of your AS/400 PDF files into one document. You might want to append your converted AS/400 PDF to an existing PDF – one that wasn’t necessarily produced using CoolSpools. Or perhaps you’d like to add your newly-created AS/400 Excel file as a new worksheet in an existing Excel file. CoolSpools makes all of this simple – and as far as we’re aware, no other System i file conversion software offers you this functionality.

Format files however you like

After converting spool to Excel, you might need to format the document with color, borders, fonts or conditional formatting. CoolSpools can handle all of this, without having to reopen your Excel document to manually amend it. And after you convert spool to PDF, do you need to incorporate images such as corporate logos, watermarks or contact forms? CoolSpools has it covered.

Populate your website with AS/400 XML output

CoolSpools can do more than convert AS/400 spools for end user documentation. Its powerful iSeries XML conversion can output data that can be used to populate your website. No need to reprogram – just import the AS/400 XML direct.

So, do you need to convert spool to Excel? Convert spool to PDF? Or output XML? CoolSpools can do all of this and more – as well as formatting the output in a way that suits you.

And remember, CoolSpools software is created by Ariadne Software, well-established global experts in providing System i solutions – so you can trust it to be reliable as well as powerful.

Find out more at http://www.ariadnesoftware.co.uk.

Paperless Office with the AS/400 and CoolSpools

Posted on April 19, 2013at 8:31 am

Over the last few decades, how many times have we been promised a paperless office? A utopian way of working with all documents stored and shared electronically? Yet for most of us, our desks are still overflowing with piles of paper. But with today’s spool file conversion technology, it doesn’t have to be this way.

If your business uses an IBM System i server (formerly and more commonly known as the AS/400 series), you can convert its spooled files to a wide variety of other popular document formats, which can then be easily shared and viewed electronically. However, to produce these documents, you need the right information management software.

Introducing CoolSpools, a powerful spool file converter. CoolSpools is a flexible product designed by Ariadne Software (www.ariadnesoftware.co.uk), who are a well-established, global provider of information solutions for System i environments.

CoolSpools software makes converting AS/400 spool files to Excel, PDF, XML and other document types a simple, reliable task.

Here are just some of the ways using the CoolSpools spool converter can make sharing, distributing and understanding information so much easier…

Convert spool to Excel

Outputting AS/400 Excel is perfect if you need to produce and share sales data or other financial reports. CoolSpools software offers powerful manipulation tools to make your System i Excel documents readable and understandable, such as splitting your spooled files into multiple Excel tabs or multiple Excel documents. CoolSpools even supports formatting your AS/400 Excel documents for easier reading, with colors, fonts, shadings, borders and even conditional formatting all supported.

Convert spool to PDF

CoolSpools can also output AS/400 PDF documents. But it does so much more than simply convert your spool file to PDF. You can set parameters to split your PDFs into multiple documents, using criteria such as customer number or region. You can append your System i PDF to an existing PDF, even if it wasn’t created by CoolSpools. And you can even password protect your iSeries PDF, so sensitive data will only be seen by the people you want to see it.

Output spool file as XML

You can also convert AS/400 to XML, then use your iSeries XML files to import data into web applications. By producing AS/400 XML from your spooled files, you won’t have to input or reprogram the data – saving you time and money.

Of course, all document formats converted from your iSeries spools can easily be shared and viewed digitally – so why bother with paper?

So to save time, save money and finally banish paper documents to the trashcan of history, take a look at CoolSpools’ powerful System i file conversion solutions.

Find out more at http://www.ariadnesoftware.co.uk.

What is a Spooled File?

Posted on April 09, 2013at 10:39 am

Spool is an acronym for simultaneous peripheral operations on-line.

Spooling is a function of your computer system that saves data for later processing or printing. The system saves this data in a spooled file.

CoolSpools (www.ariadnesoftware.co.uk) is the complete information management solution for IBM System i. With CoolSpools you can manage spooled files. Our software converts the spooled file to Excel, PDF and XML. This ultimately saves your time and money by moving your business away from paper-based documents and by distributing information via electronic formats.
CoolSpools is easy to use but immensely powerful. It helps you give your users and customers the right information, at the right time, and, just as importantly, in the right format. Our solutions address issues such as:
• sending documents to customers by email without having to change print programs
• publishing company reports on a corporate server so they can be archived and accessed easily from a PC
• producing Excel files from the System i without having to rely on users or operators to run file transfers
E-reading and the environment

Technologically, the world is moving to a place where documents are created on computers, distributed via computers and digested on computers. This trend can be seen in the lean towards tablets and e-books over paperbacks, and is quickly becoming the way we read and share our data. While there are still many of us who would rather read a printed document than looking at the same document on a computer monitor, the main benefits of CoolSpools are the money saved, the easy access you have to your spooled files and the positive impact on the environment by refraining from printing unnecessarily.

There is a direct correlation between the amount of trees that have to be cut down and the amount of money it costs you, and the initial cost for CoolSpools, is usually far surpassed by the savings in reduced paper for most businesses. Kenneth Mohn of Large US Dairy informed us that the use of CoolSpools had resulted in the company spending 20% less on paper.

Here at CoolSpools, we care about the environment, saving money and increasing efficiency. If you want to understand how our solutions can help your business, please contact us at www.ariadnesoftware.co.uk/contact, email sales@ariadnesoftware.co.uk or call us on +44 (0)1625 547 962.