MS Money, MacOS Reports Print to PDF

[Ron In GB]

I'm feeling guilty in making this request as I'm already in debt to NG for his considerable work on MS Money for Mac. I Have been using it for 3 months now - terrific.

But? Would it be possible Nathan please to upgrade the 'reports' function to print to pdf?  I think you're aware that trying to 'print' on MacOS temporarily freezes Money and doesn't work. 

The 'send to/Desktop' command reports are not in pdf with the data formatted 'nicely' for the end reader. 

No matter if this is not possible - I'll continue to screenshot the Reports to send on.

[Cal Learner]

I expect there is an equivalent to right-click. 

File->Print will let you "print" to an XPS file

If you "right-click", or equivalent, into the body of a report, you bring up a context menu. Choosing Copy puts a tab-delimited copy into the clipboard, and that is suitable for pasting into a spreadsheet. If you choose Export, you can save a tab-delimited copy into a text file.

Export to Excel produces a CSV file, which can be opened by a spreadsheet.

Getting your report into a spreadsheet offers a lot of flexibility.

[Cal Learner]

If you can set up a virtual printer that appears on the drop-down list, then you could go right to PDF without involving a spreadsheet. 

[N G]

Hi Ron,

Maybe try this?

https://github.com/rodyager/RWTS-PDFwriter

Hope you're doing well.

Nathan

[Ron In GB]

Cal Thank you so much for all you time & trouble on this but sorry I think I should have made it plain I'm using NG's excellent Wine based software for Money on my Mac. I agree with all you say if using my old PC/Windows.

Nathan. I'm doing well thanks - hope you are too.

Mac OS has a standard option to save to pdf within the print dialogue in 'normal' Mac OS progs. My problem is that when using Wine/Money on my MacOS, Money is freezing if I try to print. Is that your experience? I can't see a way  to add the RTWS-PDF writer to work within the Wine/Money set up. Is that indeed possible and would that somehow mitigate the freezing problem?

[Cal Learner]

I think you are saying you know of  no way to generate what Money sees as a right-click to bring up the context menu.

There is an alternative that does not involve a right-click equivalent. In the left column, click SendTo->Desktop. That puts the report 3-way into files  the desktop. XML, CSV, and TXT files should go somewhere, that I expect you can find. If you cannot find the files, then https://forum.winehq.org/viewtopic.php?t=37529 talks about setting up a virtual desktop.

Unfortunately the TXT file is not tab-delimited, but the CSV file should be readable by your spreadsheet program.

[Ron In GB]

Thanks Cal. Again, I'm sorry in not making myself clear. As I said originally "The 'send to/Desktop' command reports are not in pdf with the data formatted 'nicely' for the end reader.'" I'm aware of the send to desk top functions but was hoping to duplicate on Wine/Money the simple well formatted (for onward transition to others) pdf format I was used to when using my PC/Money (20 years). I'm being extremely lazy in not wishing to have to  remove extraneous columns/data & reformat for instance in a desk top generated csv .

[N G]

Hi Ron,

I tested some things on my MacOS version and found that I couldn't print either; to my laser printer as well. Printing works on my Linux version however. Are you able to print to a printer? Instead of trying to create a pdf? Just curious.

I did install that PDFWriter driver I mentioned while testing and it works for regular apps but not Wine/MSMoney.

I wonder / have a feeling that this is related to Apple removing the 32bit libraries from the operating system. 

Nathan

[Ron In GB]

Hi Nathan. No, I can't print at all - Money freezes for a short time. Thanks for your help but it looks like I'll have to accept the status quo. Cheers Ron

[Cal Learner]

Is there a way to do the equivalent to a right click in Money running in Wine? I am surprised this is not discussed more often. 

I did find these, discussing the inability to  do the right-click equivalent in a couple programs running under Wine. 

https://forum.winehq.org/viewtopic.php?t=28508
https://forum.winehq.org/viewtopic.php?t=37019

Right-click is very important in Money. 

[Cal Learner]

Nathan, not what Ron wants, but note the first post on https://groups.google.com/g/microsoft-money/c/LsU8UbwvG2U/m/PMBZjG24CAAJ

I wonder how that would translate into the Wine environment. I thought I might bring this up while the topic of printing is under discussion.

[N G]

Hi Cal,

This works. I didn't run the batch file but temp.html is created when printing the portfolio.

To get there under this setup, navigate to (in your home folder) /home/USER/.msmoneyprefix/drive_c/users/USER/AppData/Local/Temp

Replace USER with your username. 

I also found a file called FY2YAS0M.htm that has Tax information comparing last year to this year.

Nathan

[N G]

HI Cal,

I think those topics are talking about enabling the ability to right-click in the native Linux file explorer to get access to a Windows/Wine program, like winrar (right-cick, Extract with WinRAR). 

Right-clicking inside Money (inside Wine) works as expected. Hope I understood your question.

Nathan

[Cal Learner]

Thanks Nathan. Since Ron was using send to desktop, and never commented on right-click, I had assumed that right-click was not available to him.

[Chris]

Chaps, how do you run a PKG file under Windows 10? I have tried a few tricks I know to get it to run but no luck so far. I use a program called FREEPDF which requires Ghost scripts. It works OK but I'm always up for something new. Chris

[N G]

Hi Chris,

PKG files are installers for MacOS. I would imagine there are pdfwriters or something similar for Windows though.

Nathan